Two huge park and ride sites in Canterbury could be uprooted from locations they have occupied for decades as part of a transport revolution.

City council bosses have revealed they are drawing up plans to move the facilities in New Dover Road and Wincheap in an attempt to shake up travel in the district.

Authority boss Ben Fitter-Harding (Con) hopes the changes – which are expected to be bankrolled by developer contributions – will be made over the next 10 years.

It comes as councillors gave the green light to mothball Sturry Road park and ride for the next two years, in a bid to save £360,000 of public cash.

“I’ve grumbled about park and ride in the past, but it needs to be in the right place with the right infrastructure around it, otherwise people are getting the bus to sit in traffic,” Cllr Fitter-Harding told KentOnline.

“We see transport as the number one thing that’s holding Canterbury back in terms of future growth.

“We’ve reached the point where air quality and congestion are problematic, and without intervention we’re not going to get the levels of economic growth the city deserves.

“We have to have meaningful park and rides because otherwise we’ll have situations like the one at Sturry, where we don’t have the usage to support the costs of running the buses.

“We’ve also got big plans around repurposing the Rheim’s Way and making it a priority for walking, cycling and public transport, supported by slip-roads to keep traffic away from the city.”

The local authority previously drew up proposals to move the New Dover Road park and ride to a plot next to a yet-to-be built A2 interchange on the 3,000-home Mountfield Park development near Bridge.

Papers published as part of the council’s 2017 Local Plan – the district’s building blueprint – says the facility will have 1,000 spaces, 274 more than its current offering.

Cllr Fitter-Harding says the Wincheap complex could be moved once Highways England’s bid to construct an A2 off-slip, which is expected to run through a section of the car park, is approved.

The Tory boss expects its new location to be revealed in the autumn, when the authority unveils its 2040 vision for Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay.

“Doing this will secure park and ride’s future. They will be more sustainable places,” he added. “I would imagine the existing New Dover Road site would be quite valuable, so that would help cover the costs involved.

“There’s a fast bus route from south Canterbury into the city, which would help it avoid congestion from Mountfield Park.

“With Wincheap, it’ll be a more attractive place to park when the new slip-road’s in.

“It probably wouldn’t be viable to keep park and ride there – it would probably need to go to one of the developments in the vicinity, where it would be able to serve the traffic off the A2.”

The council leader revealed his intention to move the sites at last week’s policy committee meeting, at which members debated shutting the Sturry Road park and ride through to 2024.

This follows a drastic fall in users at the facility which has seen it record an average of just two passengers per bus in recent months.

But senior Tories believe it could become the most desirable of the city’s three park and rides once the multi-million-pound Sturry relief road is laid and a bus lane is created nearby.

Greenhill councillor Dan Watkins (Con) told the meeting: “Each bus is only taking about two cars off the road. It’s not taking vehicles off the road, so it’s not even helping congestion.

“That’s very unusual, but it does show what a basket case this park and ride has become. This site is not working now.

“We can make it a success in the future, but let’s save £180,000 and lots of carbon emissions in the meantime.”

Under the authority’s plans, a review of the closure will be conducted after 18 months.

Council documents state more than £44,000 of public cash is spent subsidising the Sturry Road service each month.

The authority estimates this figure would instead stand at just under £30,000 when it mothballs the site, resulting in yearly savings of £180,000.

However, almost 400 people took part in a council-run consultation on the future of the park and ride earlier this year.

More than 90% of those quizzed rejected the idea, with some vowing to shop at Westwood Cross in Broadstairs instead of Whitefriars if the suspension is given the green light.

Addressing colleagues, Liberal Democrat councillor Alex Ricketts said: “The consultation was dead against it, and it does raise the question ‘what’s the point in consulting if we’re going to ignore what the residents say?’

“I understand the financial reasons behind it, but every business is losing money at the moment – we’re in that level of economy.

“It seems really odd to me to close this when we’re going into summer and about to have universities back with a full complement.

“We’re going to be in a massive mess over the next six to eight months. The long-term implications of this are absolutely dire for the health and transport of this district.”

Despite the groundswell of opposition to the move, councillors narrowly voted through the plans to shut the site.

A date for its closure has not yet been set.