Four years back when the Cuckoo Farm park and ride scheme was being finalised I pointed out it was likely to be a failure at relieving peak period town centre area congestion.

It is because so many 9am to 5pm workers in Colchester have free employer parking.

Essex County Council's own consultants had also noted this.

Therefore the park and ride was excellently placed for running a dedicated service for the hospital.

The first point has, of course, been proved true, with average town centre peak use still only seven passengers per bus. (Essex County Council and Colchester Council are in total denial on this.)

As to the hospital, all we got was Cllr "Obstinacy Bass" insisting it was not his job to do anything about hospital parking problems.

After he disappeared, the stops on the Northern Approach Road were agreed, but, not surprisingly, few are willing to walk out to and wait in this wasteland.

The hospital in the meantime decided to bring even more traffic into Turner Road by increasing the amount of onsite car parking.

Not surprisingly, this has failed to provide an answer to the problem, all the more so in the light of moving Essex County Hospital services here.

As ever, Colchester has done everything wrong and got in a mess, which the hospital is now trying to solve by "greenwashing" the staff with advice on impractical (especially for shift workers) alternative means of transport.

However it would still be possible to use the spare park and ride vehicle to run a dedicated service for the hospital, in from the Northern Approach Road direct, stopping at two points, in the hospital proper and back via Turner Road. Cuckoo Farm is accessible by the A120 and A12, for most places in the hospital catchment area on a northern arc from Tendring in the east to Kelvedon and Tiptree in the west.

But instead Essex County Council is wanting to flog the unused spaces at Cuckoo Farm for other purposes.

Peter Kay

Park Road, Wivenhoe