TAKING on the Dartmouth park and ride would prove a financial liability for the town, a former business leader has warned.

Paul Reach believes the town's business improvement district and Dartmouth Town Council would be foolish to take on the loss making operation. And he has reminded the BID board that it was strongly advised in the early days not to get involved in running parking in the town.

Mr Reach, a former BID chairman, believes the park and ride service cannot be looked at in isolation

He is urging both the BID and the town council not to make this mistake and instead would like to see South Hams Council tackle the problem of parking as a whole in Dartmouth.

Mr Reach, who was also chairman of the town's business forum which spearheaded the setting up of the BID project, said the BID and town council should consider a few facts before embarking on any such venture.

'As chairman of the BID project team, I worked with Mosaic, our BID consultants, to negotiate a series of what's called "baseline agreements" with South Hams Council, one of which regarded the provision of parking in Dartmouth,' he said.

'It outlined the council's responsibility to provide this service but it also included an appendix, prepared by council staff, that outlined the financial profile of parking in Dartmouth.

'This showed that the park and ride make a loss of £21,000 a year; Mayor's Avenue car park makes a surplus of £162,000; and the castle car park makes a small surplus of £4,600. Overall, therefore, South Hams Council makes a surplus of £145,000 from parking in Dartmouth.

'This in itself is hard to justify in view of the fact that parking plays such an important role in the economy of the town, but the idea that South Hams Council should offload the loss-making park and ride to local organisations, leaving them with a surplus of £166,000 from the remaining parking places, is also to me totally unacceptable.

'It might seem morally appropriate but, as a BID levy payer, I do no want my levy subsidising the local authority, when the BID was meant to support the economic development of the town.

'I also find it unlikely that the BID and town council can run the park and ride service more efficiently than a national transport company.'

Mr Reach said this was the precise reason why baseline agreements were part of the preliminary build up to the BID vote.

'They are designed to prevent local authorities from using BID funds to subsidise services they are responsible for,' he said.

'I would remind the BID that Mosaic specifically advised the board not to get involved in running parking in the town, and that advice was based on their experience in 50 other BID towns.

'I urge both the BID and the town council not to make this mistake and instead urge South Hams Council to look at parking as a whole in Dartmouth and not cherry pick the profitable areas. This would be a waste of BID and town council funds and time.'