PLANS to scrap York's late-night Park&Ride service have been abandoned - at least for the time being.

Bus operators First had intended ditching the service between Askham Bar and the city centre from next Monday, because it was proving costly and

attracting insufficient passengers.

But the company had a last-minute change of heart after being contacted by City of York Council earlier this week.

Commercial director Peter Edwards said it had agreed to an authority request to keep the late-night service running until the two organisations had had a chance to meet and discuss the issue.

He said the Askham Bar buses ran from 6am until midnight, instead of the usual Park&Ride hours of 7am until 8.30pm.

The early morning service had proved fairly successful, but it had been a different story with the evening buses.

"It has been quite costly, and not many people used it," he said. "We have run this on a commercial basis. We don't receive a subsidy."

He said the original decision to scrap the buses was advertised with notices at Askham Bar.

He had been approached about the decision on Tuesday by a council officer, and there were now a number of possible options, including the scrapping of the service, the continuation of the service with a subsidy, and its replacement with an alternative service.

Evening Press reader David Pritchard contacted the paper to say he found it an "incredible decision", as York was now entering its main tourist visitor season.

He claimed: "Use of the service has been low, but responsibility for this lies firmly with First York and City of York Council, which have totally failed to adequately promote the service."

The introduction of the late-night Park&Ride was one of a series of measures proposed by City of York Council in the autumn 2004 in response to the Evening Press' Stop The Highway Robbery campaign.

Other changes included cutting evening parking charges and removing some double yellow lines.

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "The late night Askham Bar Park&Ride service will continue to operate for the time being.

"The council is carrying out surveys to assess user levels, and discussions are taking place with First York about its future."

Updated: 09:55 Saturday, April 22, 2006