In the third of four articles responding to the Evening Press' Stop The Highway Robbery campaign, Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Galloway, leader of City of York Council, explains the authority's attitude to cars - and reveals the increased use of buses in York.

We have a situation where the council's income is insufficient to sustain good quality public services and a city centre economy which is facing a series of challenges, some of which are outside local control.

Higher parking charges were introduced from March to partially address the council's budget deficit, although the bulk was found from £4 million of efficiency savings.

Since the balance of power on the council changed in 2000, there has been a general consensus that York should try to reduce the number of inessential car journeys into the city centre.

This was motivated by a desire to reduce congestion and to address air quality problems.

The emphasis has been on providing a good quality public transport network.

By any standards, the strategy has been a success. We now have the only large scale Park&Ride system in the country which does not rely on public subsidy to operate.

More than two million people use Park&Ride every year and the numbers are increasing every month.

April: +8.1% (to 166,991)

May: +5.1% (to 170,154)

June +19.1% (to 179,337)

Interestingly total expenditure on shopping by individual Park&Ride users (average £25.92) is as great as expenditure by people who have parked in the city centre (average £24.82)

It is not just Park&Ride that is booming. Normal stage carriage bus service usage continues to grow - beating the national trend.

There was a 18% growth in First York bus service usage in 2003-4 compared to 2002-3

Overall, there has been a 700,000 increase in bus passenger journeys over the last financial year, taking the total for the year to 12 million.

For the first three months of this year, the bus operator First has seen a 271,000 increase in patronage on its non-Park&Ride service, with Park&Ride contributing a further 43,000 over the same period. The total increase for First services therefore totalling 314,000 during the first 3 months.

Use of evening bus services is showing an even sharper rise:

Stage carriage services (First) after 7pm:

2003 2004 Difference %

April 47,139 64,511 17,372 +37%

May 57,175 69,748 12,573 +22%

June 55,991 67,943 11,952 +21%

So, York's improved bus service is carrying many more passengers than it did 18 months ago.

What then is the current council's attitude to the use of cars?

We recognise that personal transport will be a continuing feature of life for the foreseeable future. Some journeys can only be made using this mode whether because of the route required or because of the load that has to be carried. For some journeys there is no alternative.

We have an £8 million highways maintenance programme this year - the largest EVER.

We now have, for the first time, 24-hour CCTV coverage of our car parks and extending to cover many city centre streets. Car crime is now falling rapidly. This CCTV service has to be paid for.

Most car parks have been resurfaced over recent years and many now have much improved lighting

Our opponents solution is to introduce "congestion charging". They have never explained the effect that this would have on the economy of central York.

We have also resisted suggestions to "grass over" York's most popular car park (Castle). We believe that this would have a devastating effect on business in the city centre.

But we do recognise the impact that cars can have on the environment and on air quality. Society must move towards using smaller "city" cars as well as switching to other forms of transport, including cycles and the new "electric" buses which are currently being trialled in the city.

So what has been the effect of the recent changes?

A visitor survey for March-June 2004, compared with March-June 2003, shows these characteristics:

More visitors are getting to the city centre by Park&Ride (18% v 12%)

Fewer are getting to the centre by car (16% v 22%)

The number of visitors from the rest of Yorkshire has gone up to 19% from 15% - yet they are the visitors who might have heard of increased parking charges so were most likely to have been discouraged.

There has been a noticeable increase in spending on shopping - up 40% per person per day - and on evening entertainment - up 51% per person per day.

But car park use in the central area has reduced over the last three months. The most recent figures reveal:

A 5.1% fall in central CP usage, in April 2004 compared to April 2003, to 171,276. Total including "on street" is 182,005 representing a fall of 3.8%

8.3% fall in central CP usage in May 2004 compared to May 2003 to 164,670 Total including on street is 176,614= fall of 6.5%

4.6% fall in central CP usage in June 2004 compared to June 2003 to 158,781 Total including on street is 171,600 = fall of 1.8%

On the other hand, parking ticket sales in the evening have shown a steady increase

Sales after 6pm were 13,707 in March, 18,107 in April, 19,875 in May with a slight fall to 19,636 in June.

So the people are still coming to York. Daytime car park use has dropped, but other modes of transport have increased. A massive 20% increase in bus patronage last year (bucking the national trend of falling bus use), 8.5% on Park&Ride, more private hire vehicles on the road and 4% more people walking. Only cycling has dropped.

Those increases more than offset the reduction in car park use. Spend is up and the survey work shows that people using Park&Ride spend more than carborne visitors.

But these figures may disguise the impact that charges are having on specialist sections of the central York economy and I will look, in my final article, at how we might address those concerns.

Updated: 08:27 Thursday, July 22, 2004