OPPOSITION to a proposed park and ride scheme at Harbledown is mounting.

The city council is considering concreting over an orchard at Faulkners Lane to create a car park and bus stops on the north-west side of Canterbury.

But residents have launched outspoken attacks on the scheme.

They may save the orchard if the council agrees that it is possible to expand the park and ride station at Wincheap and link it to the A2 via a new slip road.

Former Labour councillor Ron Pepper is among those demanding the council ditches the Harbledown scheme.

The 73-year-old said: “There is an alternative in Wincheap.

“Furthermore, the area they are proposing to use at Harbledown is prime agricultural land and would mean the destruction of beautiful countryside.”

*Full story in this week's Kentish Gazette.