DORCHESTER Park and Ride will close this summer.

The service based at Dorchester Town Football Club will stop running at the end of July.

This follows West Dorset District Council’s decision not to renew its lease of the Avenue Stadium car park, which ended in April.

The Echo exclusively revealed yesterday that the service could be set to close this summer before it was later confirmed by the council.

Dorset County Council currently provides the weekday shuttle bus service between the stadium and County Hall.

It is largely used by county council staff as well as other workers and members of the public.

The county council has found the service to be unaffordable after reviewing current operations with all parties, and have therefore agreed to stop the service.

The services has helped ease congestion in to the county town and also helped in battling parking problems.

The service currently has 110 season ticket holders and around 50 more regular daily users.

The district council will honour the remainder of any annual permits in its long-stay car parks in the town.

Mike Harries, Dorset County Council’s director for environment and the economy, said: “The park and ride has been popular with regular users and has helped in part to reduce congestion in the town, especially along Weymouth Avenue.

“However, regrettably, too few people have chosen to use the service to make it viable and with the lease coming to an end it is no longer practical to continue it.”

The county council is continuing to work with partners to look at alternative options both short and long term.

It costs £1 per vehicle to use the park and ride.

Dorchester Town and West Dorset District councillor, Molly Rennie, said: “It’s a shame.

“However, it’s just not affordable. Our car parks are partially empty and the park and ride is not used.

“It’s going to get worse for our residents. I think the problem is people refuse to pay to park. There’s no getting away from it, everyone does it and I don’t know how we get people back in to the car parks.

“I have huge sympathy over this. The money should be put in to improving the market car park so people feel safe in the winter when it’s dark to come and use it.”