THE WHEELS are in motion for the launch of a park and ride service in Darlington.

The service will begin on Saturday, October 18 in a bid to help Christmas shoppers make the most of the town centre.

Demand for car parking in the run up to Christmas is expected to be high following the loss of hundreds of spaces as a result of the closure of the Town Hall car park.

Darlington Borough Council’s leader, Councillor Bill Dixon, hopes the park and ride scheme will ease the pressure and encourage people to visit the town.

He said: “We’ve lost around 300 spaces for the run up to Christmas and that is a huge challenge.

“The park and ride is part of a range of measures to try and help footfall over Christmas – if it’s a success and people want to keep it, we’ll look to extending it throughout the building of the new multi-storey car park.”

The scheme will run from Darlington College into the town centre on Saturdays, stopping at Stand C on Northgate, Stand F on Prebend Row and Stand K on Tubwell Row.

Darlington College’s principal Kate Roe said the service would be good for the town.

She said: “We wanted to support it because it’s good for the town economically and will help it to do well, which is important to all of us, not just businesses.

“From our point of view, if we can help and have the facilities to do so, it’s a good idea.”

Users are expected to pay £1 to park at the college and exchange their parking tickets for free return bus travel for as many people as were in the car.

Buses to Northgate and Prebend Row – services nine and ten - will run every five minutes while service one to Tubwell Row will run every 30 minutes.