Bridgnorth's Saturday park and ride to open under new pricing structure

The weekly service will open in April from 9.30am to 4.30pm at an increased parking cost of £4 per car, with bus journeys from the Nock Deighton car park in Tasley into the town centre remaining free.

A £20 season ticket will also be available for shoppers, which will entitle them to free parking and bus journeys every Saturday.

The decision to alter the service was made at an executive committee meeting of the town's Chamber of Commerce following fears last year that the service may have to close due to a lack of funding.

Steve Robbins, chairman of the Chamber, said the changes aim to make it cheaper for regular users while generating much-needed revenue from occasional visitors.

"We hope the introduction of season tickets will please our regular customers as it will work out cheaper for them at less than £1 per week to park," he said.

"And we hope that it will encourage more locals to use the service as an easy way to pop into town on a Saturday at any time as well as to shop for longer without having to pay the increased parking charges in the town's car parks."

From 2015, the chamber subsidised the service for the first two years before introducing a £2 parking fee to offset costs of using Nock Deighton's car park and the upkeep of the minibus, which travels about 70 miles a day.

Mr Robbins added: "The chamber will be promoting Bridgnorth as a tourist destination and advertising the park and ride across the Midlands this year, it is hoped the increased parking charge of £4 per car for occasional users who generally park all day will remain a competitive price compared to other towns and will also help towards the advertising costs.

"New fliers will be distributed in town and handed out to passengers which will give full details of the service together with the bag drop facility that enables shoppers to send their shopping back to the car park on the bus to be kept safely for them until they have finished in town."