Park and ride schemes for Sidmouth have been debated for as long as I have lived here (nearly 20 years) and likely long before that. The latest proposal is a scheme to the west of the town along the A3052 where large areas of land have recently been developed for housing (and with more to follow?). The festival operates a park and walk scheme but it is a long and potentially muddy walk! It could be argued that it is a park and ride scheme if you count the festival bus as the ride into town. But the service is not what people expect of a proper park and ride - a proper car park and a short walk from their car to a frequent service.

There have been large changes in 'Sidmouth politics' recently as a spin-off from the Save Our Sidmouth campaigns - centred upon EDDC's scheme to leave Sidmouth and have their present Council offices (the Knowle, site of the old Arena showground) redeveloped.

save our sidmouth

The website is a little difficult to navigate, unfortunately.

A park and ride just for the festival could only be a temporary affair (much as the festival bus is now) - a more user friendly arrangement would require a large area of all-weather hard standing close to a major road. Sidmouth was (once again) lucky with the weather this year. Yesterday morning we had a severe rainstorm.

Transport issues in small towns that were never designed for lots of traffic are usually problematic. The idea of moving the festival to a 'all-in-one' site had to be abandoned owing to transport concerns:

Proposal to move to Salcombe Hill

My understanding is that festival may still seek to move out of Sidmouth to a 'all-in one' site much as Shrewsbury and Towersey have done, but for different reasons. Costs may reduce, fewer stewards would be needed, but Sidmouth as a town would lose some of the festival atmosphere.

Like Park and Ride, no one answer will suit everybody.