Following the decision of Bourton Vale Parking Ltd to cease offering parking facilities to coaches in their facility from 1st January 2023, Cotswold District Council hosted a meeting on 20th September, at which were present officers from CDC, representatives of Cotswold Tourism, Gloucestershire Highways, Gloucestershire Police, Bourton Parish Council, and representatives from the business community here in the village.
CDC were clear from the outset that they viewed their role as facilitators in this issue and should not be relied upon to provide a solution, although they recognised that the various agencies would have to deal with and potentially provide temporary solutions for any negative impact which may arise should coaches be unable to utilise their current facilities.
It was disappointing to note that Bourton Vale had not been invited to the meeting.
There was robust discussion around the fact that banning coaches would have a devastating effect on many businesses in the village whose income depended on tourism. CDC accepted this and understand that should coaches not be able to access parking facilities as current, coaches will still come to Bourton, and there would be significant challenges from a traffic management point of view. There is also the distinct probability that coach companies would choose other destinations within the Cotswolds which may not be able to cope with a significant increase in this form of traffic.
CDC informed the meeting that they had been looking at alternative sites within the village, whether that be land they owned (much of which has been sold off over recent years) or looking to other landowners who may be able to offer an alternative site.
What are the options?
There appear to be just two possible long-term solutions to a cessation of coaches accessing their current location, one is to convert some of the CDC car park on Rissington Road, which would have a negative impact on revenues for both CDC and Bourton itself, through the current tourism levy. This would be a short-term solution while a longer-term option was progressed. That longer-term option would involve Cotswold School land and has several constraints, not least of which would involve project funding.
There was a subsequent meeting a few days after this where Bob Hadley, John McCabe and Andrew Lund-Yates met with Bourton Vale to try to understand their reasoning behind their decision and to express the views of the business community who feel that their decision would have a hugely detrimental impact on many of the businesses in the village.
We expressed our respect for their decision, and they fully accepted that although there would be a knock-on effect to business, that was not their intention and they would be open to extending their deadline of 31/12/2022, if there was a clear pathway identified for providing an alternative site for coach parking.
Termination of Coach Parking at Bourton Vale Car Park postponed to 31/12/2023
There has since been a meeting with CDC, Bourton Parish Council and Bourton Vale where Bourton Vale have now agreed to postpone their 31/12/2022 deadline until 31/12/2023.
BBN are committed to working with Bourton Vale and the relevant agencies to progress both the short- and long-term solutions to this issue.
Bourton Vale are still intending to cease allowing access to coaches to their facilities as from 01/01/2024.