Locals in one of the Cotswold’s most frequented tourist spots, Bourton-on-the-Water, are sounding the alarm over new plans to manage bus and coach parking, warning that they could lead to fatalities.
The Gloucestershire village’s officials are grappling with the challenges posed by the vast influx of vehicles ferrying day-trippers.
Astonishingly, in a single year, 238,000 people descended upon the ‘Venice Of The Cotswold’ via coach or large minibus. While residents bemoan the lack of parking due to the surplus of buses, businesses fear that a ban on buses would severely impact trade, transforming the idyllic village into a “ghost-town”.
A temporary solution has received official backing but has been labelled as dangerous by a local care home manager, who believes it could put lives at risk. The parish council has given its support to a proposal aimed at alleviating the parking shortage, which is set to worsen following the closure of a privately-owned site in 2023.
The plan involves designating an on-street parking bay on Meadow Way for coaches to pick up and drop off passengers. After a ten-minute window, buses would then proceed to an industrial estate where parking would be provided.
However, this scheme has raised concerns at Jubilee Lodge care home on Meadow Way. Management fears that the increased traffic could obstruct emergency vehicles, thereby endangering lives.
These concerns have been formally communicated to the parish council, according to reports from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Expressing deep concern, the manager said: “My biggest concern is that due to a high volume of traffic and with such a narrow road to and from Jubilee lodge the emergency services will not be able to get through which could ultimately result in death.”
Today, some residents echoed the manager’s sentiments. Ron Wellard, a 77-year-old retired fitter and 50-year Bourton resident, commented: “Everyone agrees that it’s a stupid idea, putting it next to an old people’s home.
“The old Co-op would have been better. I can’t imagine people living next to the coach parking lane right next door won’t be too happy about it, like the people living next door to the old coach park.
“But that’s people for you, they buy a house next to a coach park and then moan about the coaches coming past.”
Ron noted the contrast between the bustling tourist season and the quiet evenings: “You can come here in the summer, it’s heaving with tourists, then after seven o’clock at night it’s a ghost town. But they don’t live here you see.
“It’s like living at the seaside, you never go to the sea if you live at the coast – it’s tourists. I want the tourists to come of course, I’m very much live and let live, but they’d mind if I was constantly in Birmingham as a tourist.”
Kieron Smith, 72, who has lived opposite the care home for 12 years, also expressed concern, specifically about the pollution from the coaches: “It’s the fumes. I’m not worried if they park there, but they don’t turn the engines off.”
Another nearby resident raised concerns about emergency services access, stating: “The emergency services are here quite often with the blue lights going into the old people’s home and they’re going to be held up.
“Why can’t they make the tourists walk the extra short distance so that they’re not outside the care home? If they love the village so much, it’s only a short distance to the back of the village.”
Another local sharing their frustration: “The way the coach drivers abused the local infrastructure last year was terrible – parking up roads, blocking people’s entrances, getting irate. This sort of thing is causing a lot of problems and the bus drivers didn’t help.
“I find coaches parking up the sides of country roads and cars can’t see round them. Especially when the kids come to school. If you’ve got coaches coming in then it’s going to be blocked up. Sometimes we’ve had two or three coaches pull up in a day, and they don’t just drop off and go away, they stay there for long hours.
“If an ambulance is waiting two or three extra minutes to pick someone up at the care home because there’s a backlog from the coaches, then that’s a problem.”
Katie Udell, 33, who works in a shop in Bourton and has been a resident of the village for a decade, having spent her entire life in the Cotswolds. She shared: “I think when you’ve got schoolchildren and elderly people, alongside the tourists, and it’s already chaos at the school in the morning and at pick-up time. It’s already chaos and it’s going to be even more chaos. But the coaches have to drop off somewhere.
“They’ve got to drop off somewhere, and it is safer there than in the middle of the village with everyone trying to cross the roads, but it is a worry with the elderly people and the younger kids because if they get caught within a group of tourists, it’s very easy for them to get knocked.”
Communication is at the heart of resolving these issues, and the need for clear information is paramount. “I think communication is important. I’ve seen and read nothing in terms of the solution, how they’ve come about the decision and why they’ve decided to implement certain changes,” continued another resident.
“It means residents are better informed. We don’t receive anything as a business that says why they’ve come to the decision and these are the conclusions that have been drawn.
“They haven’t even asked us for our opinion on it, which seems to me to be a missed opportunity to understand the implications of a decision or the knock-on effect and build a community-wide consensus.”
Despite this, GCC Highways has expressed its desire for feedback from both the parish council and local residents during this period. However, the plans have sparked disagreement among councillors.
County Council leader Stephen Davies weighed in on the matter, stating: “GCC Highways says it wants feedback from the parish council and local residents during the period. Councillors disagreed on the plans.
”It’s not a long-term solution, it’s a temporary solution to alleviate the current problem while we work with all those involved including the parish and the district.” He further added that the long-term resolution would likely require more effort and involve discussions with local businesses.