VISITORS wanting to get their Christmas shopping underway will be able to take advantage of free park and ride journeys. 

Essex County Council is offering free rides to passengers after noon throughout December. 

It means shoppers in Colchester will be able to park and ride the bus for free after this time. 

They can also get a free Christmas shopping bag. 

The free rides come as Essex County Council is looking to reduce the price of an adult ticket after noon each day.

County Hall is assessing whether they should lower the price from £3 per person to £2.50 between 1pm and 3.30pm each day.

The decision follows a fall off in the number of people using the service since 2019/20, where there were there were 257,524 park and ride uses.

There were only 93,149 uses during 21/22 time period and just 59,719 uses during the 2022/23 time period.

Earlier this month, a Gazette poll readers if they think park and ride is value for money found 85 per cent did not.