COLCHESTER’S Park and Ride ran at a £600,000 loss in its first year, figures obtained exclusively by the Gazette reveal.

Total costs – including one-off charges connected to building the park and ride - were £774,938 and income amounted to £117,895.

Essex County Council said the actual cost was £606,906 but admitted a £200,000 subsidy had been included in that figure.

It insists the scheme is on track make a profit as early as 2020.

But our financial forecasts, based on similar losses for the next three years, show it faces a £2.4million deficit by then.

Some 77,583 passengers used the £6.2million facility which opened last April.

Passengers didn’t pay for the first two months due to an introductory offer.

Peter Kay, secretary of Colchester Bus Users' Support Group (C-Bus), said: “One might guess that if they had charged normal fares from the start, the income for the first 12 months would have been circa £200,000; could hardly be more.

“So the 'if things had been normal', loss in year one, for the purpose of predicting the future, is say £500,000-550,000, rather than 606,906.

“But that is effectively still 2.5 times the estimated maximum loss.”

The park and ride is at junction 28 of the A12 and is part of Mile End ward.

One of its Lib Dem borough councillors, Phil Coleman, said: “It is clearly underused and could, with some additions, benefit the running costs and help clear some of the congestion in and around Mile End, the North Station area and the town centre.”

Mr Coleman suggested improvements could include longer opening hours and on Sundays which might encourage more use by commuters.

The park and ride is open from 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday.

He said stopping the park and ride immediately outside North Station and having a stop at the back of Colchester General Hospital would also help.

Mr Coleman added: “Reduce the prices of tickets per person. Create flexible pricing options like family tickets, ‘North Station only’ tickets and nominal charges for car parking, regardless of bus passes.”

The Gazette asked County Hall why re-budgeting had not been done since former Highways boss Tory Rodney Bass signed off the decision, giving the park and ride the green light.

Eddie Johnson, who is now the county councillor for Highways, said: “Based on the park and ride service in Chelmsford, a service normally takes six to eight years to break even and we remain committed to achieving break-even by 2020/22 or earlier if possible.”