The commuter belt scheme in Oxfordshire has 850 spaces but no access to the nearby main road

A car park built for £51 million in Oxfordshire is lying empty because a council cannot connect it to the main road.

Planning problems are preventing motorists from using the 19-acre park and ride scheme in Eynsham until funding is secured to link it to the A40.

Aerial photographs show the 850-space site devoid of vehicles, despite its finished glossy tarmac, bus stops and green spaces. All major construction work was finished in January, followed by landscaping last month.

Although the car park could be cut off from the main road until 2027, local authorities have contracts to maintain it every week, cutting the grass and topsoiling and seeding when necessary.

Archive

  • pruwyben@discuss.tchncs.de
    31·
    3 months ago

    Although the car park could be cut off from the main road until 2027, local authorities have contracts to maintain it every week, cutting the grass and topsoiling and seeding when necessary.

    I imagine the guy whose job it is to maintain the lawn on an inaccessible parking lot as a character in a satirical book or movie a la Catch 22.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    28·
    3 months ago

    Wow, why does something like that cost £51 million? I thought, it would be massive, but it just isn’t…

    • Pyr_Pressure
      2·
      3 months ago

      Seriously. Unless it includes the cost of like multiple ten+ year maintenance contracts I think they overpaid.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
      101·
      3 months ago

      It sounds like British beuraucreacy at work, the contract to build the overpass etc is a different contract to the one to build the car park.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      Probably whoever managed to get the contract 10 years ago, knowing full well the effort to change contractors is too massive to ever happen.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    14·
    3 months ago

    Would it have hurt them to plant some trees here and there? That photo is depressing.

    • kid4today@lemmy.world
      13·
      3 months ago

      I can see quite a few trees if I zoom in on the image, they’re just young saplings at the moment as it’s all new and just been landscaped.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
      4·
      3 months ago

      The image quality isn’t amazing but if you zoom in you can see there are trees planted, they’re just small so don’t show up well.

      • egrets@lemmy.world
        5·
        3 months ago

        I applaud the sentiment, but it’s a park-and-ride car park served by buses. While it would be great if infrastructure was such that it was affordable and practical to exclusively use public transport, this was specifically built to stop people from driving into the city, reducing car traffic in the urban centre and improving air quality and general QOL for pedestrians.