Senior councillors approve £20million for park and rides at Temple Green and Alwoodley

Senior councillors at the council’s executive board on Wednesday 24 July, agreed to progress plans for a new 550-space car park and ride at Alwoodley and up to 400 additional car spaces at Temple Green.

Together these sites along with an extension to Elland Road and new Stourton park and ride will create an additional 2,000 park and ride spaces across the city.

This work is from Connecting Leeds – which is to invest an unprecedented £270million in the transport network of the city.

Connecting Leeds, the long-term transport strategy for Leeds, aims to improve all aspects of transport and travel in the city and connecting to the wider Leeds City Region.

The report highlighted investing £14million in a new Alwoodley Park and Ride site located on council owned land opposite Leeds Grammar School. The location has the advantage of intercepting traffic moving towards Leeds from Harrogate on the A61 North, reducing traffic levels in the north part of the city.

It is planned the site would provide a high quality, high frequency bus service to encourage people out of their cars and reduce vehicle congestion.

Just two years ago the 1,000-space bus park and ride site at Temple Green, in east Leeds opened. Temple Green park and ride has proved very successful and is over 85 per cent full at peak times. At current growth levels it will reach maximum capacity before the end of this year. The extra investment in the site extension is £6.5 million.

Connecting Leeds are currently consulting on Temple Green expansion plans and people can have their say on the Council’s website until Friday 9 August.

Together these sites could see over 400,000 less vehicles driving into the city centre per year and take-out 5,800 tonnes of carbon, therefore improving air quality, reducing noise and emission levels. These improvements will help to encourage more people to travel by bus, further reducing congestion on the city’s highways and will contribute to the target of doubling bus patronage over ten years.

The designs of the park and ride schemes are subject to planning permission and then developed with our construction partner, with the work expected to complete by March 2021.

Leeds City Council's executive board member for climate change, transport and sustainable development, Councillor Lisa Mulherin, said:

“We are already delighted with the successful park and rides sites at Elland Road and Temple Green. Creating a new park and ride site in north Leeds, along with plans for Stourton will benefit people in more parts of the city. Pending planning approval, these extra 950 park and rides spaces developed through Connecting Leeds, will have the capacity to take 406,000 car journeys off our streets each year with the removal of approximately 5,800 tonnes of carbon.

“With a Climate Emergency now is the time more than ever for commuters to think about their journeys. Providing better and more reliable bus services will give more people the confidence and choice to plan travel, without using their car. It’s also a cheaper way to travel for families, with children travelling free from park and ride with a paying adult.”

Further information

The vision set out for Connecting Leeds is to deliver a transformational step change in the transport network and connectivity in Leeds and the wider region. It’s aiming to help and support bringing people, places, jobs, learning and leisure closer together. This will be achieved through improvements to road, rail, bus, park and ride, cycling and walking services and infrastructure, reducing congestion and improving air quality and accessibility in Leeds along with utilising the latest technology innovations.

It has been developed from the feedback received in the biggest-ever transport conversation held with residents, businesses, stakeholders and visitors in the city which included more than 8,000 people taking part in a survey in 2016.

For more information go to www.leeds.gov.uk/connectingleeds or @ConnectingLeeds on twitter or through Leeds City Council’s Facebook page.

For media enquiries please contact:

Adrian Capon

Leeds City Council communications and marketing

T: 0113 378 1622