A FREE bus service to Winchester's leisure centre has been reinstated after a successful trial.

People will be able to get on to the park and ride buses at Broadway in Winchester's city centre and travel for free to the Barfield Close Park and Ride stop in Bar End.

The move has been brought in by Winchester City Council as a way of encouraging people to go to the new leisure centre, which opened near to the park and ride site almost exactly one year ago.

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The centre, which has a swimming pool and fitness suite plus more and is run by Everyone Active, replaced the now defunct and empty site at River Park.

This prompted some criticism from residents who felt they could not easily access the new site, so the council launched a free bus trial in October, which proved popular.

Now the free service has been reinstated and made permanent, with passengers able to travel for free from Monday, May 16.

Council leader Martin Tod said he was delighted to be able to bring the service back - and he urged people to use it.

He said: "The new leisure centre site is more convenient for some, but it was less convenient for others so we wanted to make sure that everyone could easily access the site.

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"This is a step in the right direction. We want to encourage people to use low carbon methods of transport in order to improve city's air pollution, and this has the added benefit of getting people to an excellent leisure centre, where they can get all the physical and metal benefits that exercises and fitness brings."

The Park and Ride bus service is operated by Stagecoach South and see buses travel between the five park and ride sites every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday from 6.30am until 7.30pm.

The Barfield Park and Ride site recently benefited from an expansion and an upgrade, with a multi-storey car park opening earlier this year that increased capacity.

A Stagecoach spokesperson said: "We're pleased to be able to partner with Winchester City Council and Everyone Active on providing free travel to the Winchester Sports and Leisure Park.

"We hope it will encourage more people to get back on the bus again for other journeys too and help towards forming sustainable and healthy travel habits again."

Cllr Tod said the council was proud of the success of the leisure centre, with more than 650,000 people visiting it in the first year.

He said: "It has been very successful. It is a great building and the people who work there have made it a success through their hard work. We are very pleased with it.

"If you haven't tried the leisure centre yet, then please do. And if you have not tried the park and ride service or the bus, then please give it a go."

The leisure centre is gearing up to mark its first anniversary with a celebratory event that will see free lessons, free access and special Olympian guests this weekend (Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22.)

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