A park and ride scheme aimed at cutting Whitstable’s summertime queues has been announced.

Canterbury City Council will be working with the Whitstable Gazette, builder George Wilson and bus company Stagecoach on the service which is due to start next month and last until the start of September.

George Wilson and the newspaper, which is owned by the KM Media Group, will lend the council their car parks on the Estuary View Business Park while Stagecoach will build on their new number 36 bus route.

Buses will leave every 15 minutes from the medical centre bus stop on the Old Thanet Way and return from Harbour Street every Saturday and Sunday from July 4 until September 6. The service will also run during the August bank holiday.

On the way back, passengers can jump on at any stop along the High Street and Oxford Street.

Chairman of the council’s regeneration and property committee, Cllr Ben Fitter (Con), said: “It’s good news for Whitstable that we’re able to provide a park and ride service again this summer.

“We’d like to thank the Whitstable Gazette and George Wilson for lending us their car parks once more because it would be very difficult to do otherwise.

“We know parking is under pressure in the town during the summer, particularly at weekends, so the extra number of spaces provided at the park and ride should help ease congestion and make getting in and out of Whitstable a little easier.”

Whitstable Gazette editor Leo Whitlock said the KM Media Group is only too pleased to help.

He said: "Congestion and parking problems in the town dominate our news agenda and it is because we are based in Whitstable that we know how miserable the jams can be.

"We are more than happy to lend the council our car park at the weekends.

"Hopefully shorter queues will keep the tourists coming, the tills ringing and cut the queues at the same time."

The only days the park and ride will not run are Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26. This is the opening weekend of the Whitstable Oyster Festival, and organisers are putting on a special park and ride service at Church Street.

During the school summer holidays, an extra 70 spaces will be available at Whitstable Junior School.

The city council is paying for a special surface to cover the football pitch so that cars can park.

Half of the Gorrell Tank car park’s spaces will be closed off throughout this period while Southern Water continue repairs to the tank underneath designed to stop the town from flooding.

The city council will have staff on duty at the car parks to help customers.

Signs promoting the park and ride will be going up in the next few days.

Full timetable details will be available on the Stagecoach website in the near future.