Thousands could stop visiting Truro due to ‘nightmare’ makeover at Cornwall Council’s coach park

Holiday bus companies are considering dropping Truro from their Cornwall itineraries amid furore over the loss of vital parking spaces in the town. The town crier, who welcomes visitors to Truro four days a week, called the situation a “nightmare”.

During the pandemic, when there was an obvious shortage of sightseeing buses, Cornwall Council agreed to allow Go Cornwall Bus (GCB) – which operates the subsidized bus network on behalf of the council – to use five of the spaces in the coach fleet of of the city, which has been in operation for visiting holiday coaches for over 50 years. This means there are now just six places left for visiting coaches.

Last month, local bus driver Jonathan Keam said the decision to halve the number of bus seats “put two fingers up on Truro”. He added: “Truro are losing out because they know the coaches are coming back and taking people to places like Newquay and Falmouth.

The council says it has increased the number of places for visiting coaches at the park and ride site, as well as providing facilities there for coach drivers.

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The problem has continued in recent weeks, with buses and coaches stuck in the coach park behind Lemon Quay this week to ensure cruise ship passengers arriving in Falmouth could be dropped off in the town. Around 2,000 passengers visited Truro on Saturday and Monday, but the lack of space has led to heated exchanges between bus and coach drivers and there are concerns that much of this lucrative holiday market could be lost to the city if a solution is not found .

Truro town crier Lionel Knight welcomes coach parties to Truro from Wednesday to Saturday. He said: “It’s absolutely disgusting. I think Cornwall Council stinks doing this. It’s always been a coach park for the last 50 years and suddenly they’ve given permission for buses to park there instead of visitor coaches.”

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What effect does this have on holiday coaches?

“Well, they are not coming and they will not come. I have spoken to many drivers over the last few weeks and they have told me that if that is what Truro wants then they will go to Falmouth and elsewhere. Not good for Truro.

“In the last couple of days we’ve had cruise ships arrive – on Saturday we had around 20 coaches and managed to squeeze them all in luckily but it created an atmosphere with one or two drivers coming back. This one.”

He added: “On Monday we had the same thing again with the cruise ship visitors – another 20 coaches – and there were drivers kicking again because of lack of space. Some of the passengers had to be offloaded on the way and the buses went up to the park and ride, which is a nightmare.

“I was told by some drivers last week that the country’s bus companies have decided to leave Truro off their routes next year because of this. We need these visitors. The red buses (Go Cornwall) should go up to the park and run”.

Clerk David Rodda said Truro City Council was only recently informed of Cornwall Council’s decision and had no knowledge of it before the signs were put up “which is disappointing to say the least”.

He added: “Once we found out we have been in discussions with the Transport for Cornwall team and Go Bus Cornwall about this issue to see if a solution can be found. These discussions are ongoing. The number of coaches involved in the transport of the cruise ship. passengers from Falmouth to Truro highlighted the problem as a large number of coaches arrived in quick succession.

“I am aware that a local operator has commented that due to concerns about parking in the coach park they may choose to alter their tours to other areas in Cornwall, but they have not been involved in cruise ship transfers as far as I know . “

Mr Rodda said the Visit Truro team was on hand on Monday to ensure disruption was kept to a minimum and there would be an information session with coach operators and a tour company to get feedback on their journeys recent, to better understand what exactly. options exist in the future.

“The positive story here is that Truro welcomed over 1,000 cruise passengers today (Monday), which is a key part of our strategy to encourage more traffic into Truro,” added the city official.

One of the coach companies that visit Truro is Barnes Coaches, based in Swindon. Truro is currently included in its ‘Best of Cornwall in a Weekend’ tour and ‘Scenic Coastal Cornwall’ itinerary, but is considering dropping in other Cornish towns.

Matt Barnes, who runs the company, said: “We use the coach fleet a lot and this would entertain us elsewhere as there is a lot of choice.”

Truro Business Improvement District (BID) manager Alun Jones, who oversees the town’s retail area, previously said: “We fully support the Truro coach fleet being available to its full potential for arriving visiting coaches. In order to maximize our ability to safely accommodate the various visitor coaches, coach operators will need access to the Truro coach fleet, so any steps taken to achieve maximum coach space in the coach fleet are welcome.”

A Cornwall Council spokesman told us last month: “We appreciate the importance to Truro’s economy of both tour coaches and local bus services, which bring many people into the town for both work and leisure free. GCB has used the space at Truro Coach Park since 2020. This means that drivers can access the GCB driver facilities as well as support staff and the network control centre.

“The site use agreement was recently formalized with the introduction of new signage and parking spaces in the coach park. There are five bays for GCB use, six bays for sightseeing buses and another bay for the community bus.

“We have also increased the number of spaces available for coaches visiting Truro and improved services for coach drivers. There are a further ten free coach stopovers at the Tregurra Park and Ride site, with drivers able to use the building’s facilities and free park and ride service if required after dropping off passengers at the coach park.

“This brings the total number of coach seats available in the city from 11 to 16. We have contacted all local coach operators to inform them of the changes and the initial feedback has been positive. The Confederation of Passenger Transport shared this information with coach operators further afield and expressed their support for this decision. We will consider increasing the number of places available if there is a demonstrable need.”