THE idea of bringing back Worcester’s scrapped park and ride has been met positively by readers.

County councillors voted down a motion calling for the return of the traffic-easing scheme at a meeting on Thursday (September 12).

But after getting a positive reaction from residents, Cllr Matt Jenkins said he will keep advocating for park and ride.

City councillor Alex Mace said: “Matt, being a gentleman and a scholar, is exactly right on this.

“No wonder it failed last time - in an awkward place, and more expensive than parking in the city centre. Maybe it could go on County Hall’s empty car park.”

READ MORE: Call for Worcester's park and ride to return after 10 years

A reader agreed the original Perdiswell location was wrong and suggested using trams or trains from Worcestershire Parkway into the city centre.

They added: “Parking needs to be free, otherwise you will just push cars into neighbouring streets. Just look at the hospital.”

Another said it was “a far better idea than spending upwards of £16 million on a footbridge”.

“Put one on the same site as the new school and multi-storey car park by the hospital,” they suggested.

One reader said the scheme’s return is “long overdue”.

“Let’s catch up with most other cities,” they said. “A good public transport system and network is the way to keep so many cars off congested and polluted city roads.

“The park and rides would be shown on computer road traffic and map sites and sat navs to make travel easier for visitors to our wonderful Worcester city.”

Someone else said simply: “Calls have been made since minute one of it closing. Ridiculous and short-sighted decision.”

Not everyone was in favour of park and ride coming back.

One person said: “It didn’t work 10 years ago and won’t work now. Park and ride schemes in other cities are for tourists.

“There are no big employers in the city centre that would use the service. People are lazy and prefer to drive for convenience. The council just love wasting our money.”

A comment came from someone who said they used to work on the Worcester park and ride.

“I worked for the council driving a new fleet of Mercedes Benz buses,” they said. “The W1 was flawed because of the diabolical traffic on Droitwich Road.

“They introduced a second park and ride based at Sixways that only went as far as the hospital.

“We begged for it to go into town that would have been the winner. But they refused.”

Highways chief Marc Bayliss, speaking at Thursday's meeting, said the council was waiting for government guidance before looking at big transport projects and should take a "holistic approach".