A DECISION to start charging people who park at one of the largest park and ride facilities in Cornwall will cause “considerable pain” to nearby residents.

Cllr Dulcie Tudor (Independent) represents Threemilestone on the outskirts of Truro, near Langarth park and ride. She believes the plan by Cornwall Council to start charging users will exacerbate parking problems in the village.

Following public consultation, the council approved an off-street parking order in January to introduce a parking-only charge of £1 for drivers who park at the Langarth and Tregurra facilities without using the bus services into the city.

Cllr Tudor aired her concerns at a meeting of the council’s Liberal Democrat/Independent cabinet last week. She asked portfolio holder for transport Cllr Dan Rogerson if he could “justify the negative consequences of the relatively small, I would say tiny, budget saving made by the decision to charge drivers to park at the park and ride if they don’t use the bus?

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this decision will cause considerable pain to the people living in Threemilestone and Gloweth who already suffer the residential streets being used as car parks, preventing them from being able to access their own homes at times, with dangerous parking on junctions and blocking cul-de-sacs.”

She claimed the decision completely overrode an arrangement she had successfully lobbied for, whereby students without parking provision at the college, NHS staff without parking provision at the hospital, and workers at Threemilestone Business Park – “where there’s a real lack of parking” – parked at the park and ride and walked into work.

She said patients of Threemilestone GP surgery and the village dentist also used the facility and walked to appointments, as well as people attending Threemilestone Community Centre.

Cllr Tudor added that a Truro transport meeting last week discussed changing the “car park arrangements in Truro, especially Garras Wharf to make it short-term, so people who work in Truro all day would use the park and rides instead, therefore making them more financially viable.

“So more custom for the park and ride has not been taken into consideration when making this decision,” she stated, adding: “The charge is going to be implemented in April, and as far as I know, nobody has decided on how you’re going to use the technology to find out who’s just parking there and who’s using the bus. What’s going to be the cost of that technology?”

Cllr Dan Rogerson agreed to meet Cllr Tudor to see first-hand Threemilestone’s parking problems. “To say lots of people use the facilities, whether it’s a health facility, that they should have free parking in perpetuity isn’t the case in most other towns,” he said.

“I’ve committed to discussing managing the on-street parking issues which is very much her concern if there are any changes in the area.

“It’s not our intention to radically change things, but we want to see park and ride usage expand for the purpose for which it was built, and I think if there are impacts specific to her area we have to manage that.”