Bourton-on-the-Water Parking and Transport Review
Overview
We’re reviewing parking arrangements and the movement of pedestrians, vehicles, buses and coaches in Bourton-on-the-Water, with the aim of better balancing the needs of residents, businesses, visitors and commuters.
The review forms part of a wider programme the council is undertaking across the Cotswolds, to ensure our communities are well-connected and easy to get around.
We’ve heard that finding a space to park can be frustrating for residents, pavements get blocked by cars, and the volume of visitors can make it harder for people to move around comfortably on foot.
We also want to ensure disabled bays are close to key destinations, bus stops are accessible and well-located, and pedestrians can move safely through the village.
With future development expected in the area, we want to future-proof how people travel to and around Bourton-on-the-Water for residents, businesses and visitors.
By understanding more about how people use the village today, we can develop fair, workable solutions to address community concerns across parking, walking and vehicle, bus and coach movements.
Review Process
We undertake parking and transport reviews in stages to ensure that what we ultimately implement best suits the needs of the local community.
Bourton-on-the-Water is one of several communities across the Cotswolds currently undergoing this process as part of the council’s broader commitment to improving how people move around the district.
For Bourton-on-the-Water, we are currently at the feasibility stage, collecting information to better understand the challenges around parking, pedestrian and vehicle (including bus and coach) movement in the village.
This stage will involve technical analysis of current conditions, usage patterns and pressures across the village centre and surrounding areas — including parking occupancy, pedestrian flows and bus usage.
As part of the feasibility study, we will also be exploring opportunities to introduce cycle parking and electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities, supporting greener and more sustainable travel choices for the community.
The feedback and findings gathered through this process will be used to inform and develop a range of concept designs for potential improvements.
Any concept designs produced at this stage are preliminary and will be subject to further consultation with residents, businesses and other stakeholders before any decisions are made or changes are implemented.
Coach Movements — Action Already Under Way
We recognise that coach traffic is one of the most significant pressures on movement in Bourton-on-the-Water, particularly given the village attracts around 10,000 visitors a day at peak times.
The loss of dedicated coach parking at the private Bourton Vale car park in December 2023 left the village without any coach drop-off or pick-up facility, adding to congestion and pedestrian safety concerns.
To address this in the short term, Gloucestershire County Council has introduced a dedicated coach drop-off and pick-up bay on Meadow Way through an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO). This allows up to two coaches at a time to stop for a maximum of five minutes to board and alight passengers, before relocating to off-highway parking at Pulham’s Coach Depot at Bourton Industrial Park.
Coach numbers at Pulham’s Coach Depot are managed through a pre-booking system, with operators required to email in advance to confirm capacity and ensure staggered timings, helping to reduce conflict with other road users and pedestrians.
The ETRO can run for up to 18 months, giving the council the opportunity to assess how the arrangement works in practice and giving the public a six-month window to make representations.
The outcomes and learning from this ETRO process are being actively considered as part of the wider feasibility work, to help identify longer-term, more sustainable solutions for managing coach movements in and around the village.
For more information about this process and how to submit your feedback please visit this page.
Contact us
Working with our community is key to this review and we will be updating the community once our public engagement period opens in July 2026.
To get in touch with the project team