THE city council has said that a park and ride proposed for Barton Farm is intended to "relive pressure on town centre car parking".

As previously reported in the Chronicle civic chiefs have mooted that plans to bring a facility to the development, also known as Kings Barton, could be put on hold if progress is taken on a large park and ride to the north of the city.

READ: Major park and ride scheme plan for north of Winchester

However, Winchester City Council has said that small-scale offering on the new housing estate is not expected to have an impact on traffic.

A council spokesperson said: “As part of the Kings Barton planning consent a parking facility will be created which will be served by a local bus service, initially funded from financial contributions made by CALA. We have called this a ‘park and ride light’ because there will be no separate dedicated bus service and it is intended to provide an additional option to relieve pressure on town centre car parking, rather than make a strategic impact on traffic.

“The Winchester movement strategy identifies the longer term ambition to provide a full service park and ride site to the north of the city to help create a significant reduction in traffic entering the one-way system. This would be much larger than the facility at Kings Barton, but it will also take longer to identify a suitable location and complete all the necessary planning and procurement processes. If we are able to proceed with this larger scheme in due course, we would decide whether to retain or repurpose the Kings Barton's facility, taking account of how well it has worked and the benefits that it provides.”