Ten days out from the planned closure of the only coach parking facility in Bourton-on-the-Water, the Leader of the under-fire local council yesterday questioned whether the village needs coach tourists.
The privately owned Bourton Vale coach parking area is set to close on 31 December and no alternative has been provided for setting down, picking up or parking.
In an item on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on 21 December, Joe Harris, Leader of Cotswold District Council (CDC), said having fewer visitors may be appreciated by the community due to the village being “over-touristed”.
Earlier on the programme, Andrew Pulham, Managing Director of local operator Pulhams Coaches, claimed CDC had shown a lack of foresight over the issue. He referred to the Rissington Road Car Park, which was last winter redesigned at a cost to the council of £374,000 and did not include coach bays.
Mr Pulham says: “They knew this situation was looming some five years ago and it’s certainly been on the table much more recently but they ploughed on ahead and spent in excess of £300,000 on the Rissington Road Car Park with no thought whatsoever for coaches and the situation that we now find ourselves in. I think the district council have been negligent in their actions.”
We probably need to have a review about whether we actually want coaches coming to Bourton-on-the-Water – CDC Leader Joe Harris
Mr Harris responded that coach parking was “just not feasible” at that site and that the council had done everything it could on the matter.
“Over the last two years we have worked really hard to try and find a solution to coach parking in Bourton-on-the-Water,” he says. “We have to remember that this is a private provider deciding to stop providing coach parking and, to date, unfortunately no solution has been found despite our best efforts… Unfortunately, we’re at the stage where none of the options are feasible.”
Addressing the claim over a lack of foresight, he adds: “I’d say that’s not fair because coach parking is not something we’ve historically done. We don’t do it in any other settlement in the Cotswolds and they have coaches…
“We looked at Rissington Road Car Park and what could be done there and the costs of trying to rework that and the loss if income in particular at a time when the council’s finances are under pressure … we just can’t afford to do this… We’d also lose disabled bays in that car park and probably have unexpected negative impact on the road network in that part of Bourton-on-the-Water.”
He added it was the role of Gloucestershire County Council to anticipate the need for facilities for coaches.
‘Review’ coach’s worth
Coach tourists bring an estimated £2 million a year to the village and Mr Harris admitted the loss of coach facilities could lead to a drop-off in visitors.
He says: “We might [lose visitors] and I think that’s something we need to be honest about. If you talk to a lot of residents of Bourton-on-the-Water as I do, the message is clear that it is over-touristed… So maybe fewer tourists, while businesses would be a bit apprehensive about that, for Bourton-on-the-Water as a whole, for the local community, maybe that wouldn’t be such a [bad] thing.”
He adds: “We probably need to have a review about whether we actually want coaches coming to Bourton-on-the-Water. We know in the summer it gets incredible gridlocked. There are 2.5 million visitors a year, we estimate, and sometimes there are external circumstances in the local market, the local economy, and I think this is one of those and we need to try and adapt accordingly.”
Mr Pulham says he believes cars and not coaches are responsible for any current congestion in the village. He also fears as a resident that, without coaches having access to the village, more small minibuses and cars will instead add to the traffic.
Julian Phillips, Director at Phillips International Travel of Worcester was also on the programme and says: “We see the writing’s on the wall that vehicles of our size are no longer welcome and, by extension, their passengers as well.”
He adds that other towns in the area could also lose out on tourism too, given that some operators who previously arranged trips to Bourton-on-the-Water did so in conjunction with visits to other locations nearby.
Bourton-on-the-Water Parish Council resolved at an extraordinary meeting on 18 December that The Cotswold School be approached with a view to revisiting an earlier-mooted idea concerning a drop-off point for coaches on the site. A proposal for a meeting between the parish council and CDC was also approved.
Mr Pulham also highlighted that his business had requested to increase the frequency of the Pulhams Coaches 801 bus between Cheltenham Spa, Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh.
A statement released by CDC on 19 December says in part: “Coach operators are advised to consider how best to route tours with no parking available for large coaches. There will continue to be parking for mini buses at Station Road Car Park and there are a number of local bus services which provide access to the village.”
