A CAMPAIGN has been launched to ditch plans for a park and ride at the South Gloucestershire end of the M32.

Calls for Bristol City Council to abandon proposals for the giant car park to be built at either Hambrook or Stapleton were announced this week.

Determined opponents say a park and ride near the motorway would only benefit people living in the city and not those in South Gloucestershire.

Their calls to ditch the plans once and for all come ahead of Bristol City Council's comments on the region's Local Transport Plan, due to be revealed next month.

Winterbourne councillors Allan Higgs, John Godwin and David Fletcher, who represent Hambrook on South Gloucestershire Council, have long argued the park and ride would damage the environment and strip residents of treasured green fields.

They have now joined forces with Conservative parliamentary candidate for Northavon Chris Butt in the hope that their combined protest will influence city councillors.

Mr Butt said this week: "We support a park and ride, but it has got to benefit as many people as possible.

"The M32 sites will not take a single car off the ring road and will do precisely nothing for South Gloucestershire.

"Bristol should support South Gloucestershire's plans for park and rides at Yate and Emersons Green, which will take traffic off the ring road and the M32."

He added: "People in Frenchay and Hambrook care deeply about their rural green environment and do not want it obliterated by Bristol City Council building a giant car park on it."

Local Plan inspector David Fenton recently said a park and ride in Hambrook or Stapleton could cause traffic chaos.

The city council has long argued a park and ride would tackle congestion most effectively if it was built as close as possible to the M32, M4 and the Avon Ring Road.

A petition has now been sent to 2,000 homes in Winterbourne, Frenchay and Hambrook calling for residents to oppose the scheme and break the stalemate between the two councils.

Mr Butt told the Gazette: "I spoke to a lot of residents this week who are very fearful that their villages would just become strewn with cars by people taking advantage of the park and ride but not actually parking in it."

The petition will be handed to Bristol City Council's ruling cabinet ahead of its meeting to decide whether or not to push ahead for the park and ride on April 6.