With parking spaces at a premium in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Cirencester, a company believes it might have found the answer.

En Route Parking is offering commuters a safe car park where they can meet colleagues or friends, leave one or more of their cars behind and continue their journey in one car.

Director and founder of En Route Parking, Kate Vidgen, says the idea is to save on money and avoid that frustrating early morning battle for a parking space.

“More and more businesses are coming into the county but there seems to be fewer and fewer parking spaces.

"You only have to drive around some of the business parks in our county to see cars double, even tripled parked along the side of the road, parked on residential streets, on roundabouts or right on top of junctions. "This isn’t just dangerous for the car owners, it’s a potential accident for other road users and pedestrians.

“I know local business owners are trying their best to solve the parking problems through schemes like car sharing, cycling or walking to work but there simply isn’t the uptake and there aren’t enough car parking spaces for everyone.

"We’re also seeing places like the Park and Ride at Arle Court starting to charge a significant fee to park there.

"The new charges are going to hit people’s pay checks so this is where En Route Parking can help.”

Numerous businesses are already working with En Route Parking offering commuters spare spaces in their car parks near to the motorway or major access roads in Gloucestershire for a small fee.

The spaces can be booked online as a one-off or for a block of time.

One of those businesses already signed up to the travel scheme is the Highwayman Inn on the A417.

Ian Blake who runs the pub alongside Tina Blake, says the sums are simple.

"Much of our car park stands empty during office hours and yet we watch the traffic head past us on the way to and from Cirencester Monday to Friday.

"Why not utilise our spaces and car share instead of two people driving around fighting for the same space in town?”

En Route Parking is now looking for more local businesses to take advantage of the scheme and Kate says you don’t need masses of land.

“The bonus of working with En Route Parking is that you only need a few parking spaces to make it work.

"They might not mean much to you, but your empty spaces could make a huge difference to someone’s daily commute.”

To see what spaces are free and to book a place, go to enrouteparking.com/

The businesses currently working with En Route Parking to provide spaces are -

  • Cheltenham Town Football Club
  • Cirencester Town Football Club
  • Fagin’s Steakhouse - Brookthorpe
  • Golden Castle Caravans - Twigworth
  • The Butts Farm - South Cerney
  • The George - Cambridge
  • The Highwayman Inn - Elkstone
  • The Wheatsheaf - Crudwell