A £1million park-and-ride scheme has been blamed for rising unemployment and causing the congestion it was designed to relieve.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show an average of just five people are using each of 72 daily journeys into Horsham.

Campaigners have now launched a Youtube tour of Horsham to illustrate the impact of the "bonkers" scheme.

Alan Murray, organiser of the Welcome To Horsham Not campaign, said: "Hundreds of jobs are being lost because of the park and ride.

"Big companies like Allied Materials are leaving and no-one has come to replace them because they can't park anywhere in town.

"It's completely bonkers."

The controversial scheme introduced four years ago at a cost of £1 million with car park a mile to the south of Horsham. To use it motorists often have to drive through the centre to dump their cars before waiting for a bus to take them back in again.

Plans for other park-and-ride sites have been dropped.

Councillors said an average of just 180 people were using the scheme each day while 300 council staff have permits allowing them to park free-of-charge in the town.

An extra 36 return bus journeys a day had to be introduced to accommodate the scheme.

But several businesses have since left the town and estate agents now believe 150,000sq ft of office space is sitting empty, equating to about 1,500 lost jobs.

Mr Murray said: "I think there's also a considerable environmental impact with 72 extra journeys a day - 22,000 a year.

"These buses are causing as much pollution as the cars they were meant to replace. If you work out the number of empty seats they are transporting it's virtually a million a year.

"It is time to scrap this outrageous mistake before the town sleep walks further into a situation which is plain for all to see except, that is, for the councilís ruling party, who insist on wearing the emperorís clothes."

A spokesman for the council said it was "accepted that park and ride is currently performing below its capacity" but it should not be viewed "in isolation".

If the scheme was closed the council worries that users would decamp to people's streets or fill the town centre car parks.

The spokesman said: "We will then see the increase in car park usage to a level that could cause unacceptable queuing leading to an inevitable loss of shoppers."

But Liz Kitchen, leader of the council, admitted the service was in need of "urgent review".

She added: "There is without doubt more that can be done to increase patronage at park-and-ride."

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