Pressure is building on Norfolk County Council to reopen one of the city’s park and ride sites amid claims that communities are being cut off from the city.
Eleven parish councils have joined forces to issue a joint statement pleading with the county council to re-open the Postwick bus service.
With hundreds of homes being built and a host of new businesses opening in the area, councillors are becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental and economic impacts of people having no choice but to drive.
However, the county council say it will cost more than £100,000 in subsidies to reopen it.
The Postwick site was initially closed during the pandemic when it became a Covid testing site.
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All of the other Norwich park and ride sites reopened last June but the county council said they would re-open Postwick when other sites were back to 75pc of pre-pandemic usage.
That has not happened though, despite being brought back in temporarily before Christmas to help during the festive shopping period.
The joint statement, from parish councils including Postwick, Brundall, Blofield and Acle, said the Christmas reopening received "minimal advertising".
It states: "This service has been closed, blaming residents for a failure to use it, rather than considering other more viable and imaginative business options.
"The surrounding area is marked for significant growth both in terms of housing and business development.
"Park and ride services reduce congestion in cities and carbon emissions. A failure to reopen the service will cause the opposite to happen."
The plea has been backed by Ian Mackie, the Conservative county councillor for neighbouring Thorpe St Andrew.
He said: "I would very much welcome Postwick Park and Ride being put back into operation as I know it was a popular location, even more so now with the growth of the Broadland Business Park. 
“I understand that subsidising the facility was the issue and once the other park and ride sites reached 75% capacity, then Postwick would be next.
“I’m hopeful that the county council will restart the service as soon as financially possible.”
The joint statement also questions how demand for the Postwick site will be analysed and said a Freedom of Information request had proved that a business plan with costed forecasts had not been produced.
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Lana Hempsall, the county council’s deputy cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport, said: “The Park and Ride is an important part of our transport strategy and we remain committed to reopening the Postwick service when passenger numbers return to 75% pre-covid levels.
"We are doing what we can to keep the service running by subsidising the other four sites while passenger numbers remain low.
“Re-starting the service from Postwick would add between £100,000 to £200,000 to that subsidy, while the most recent figures show that although passenger numbers across other bus services in Norfolk have gone back up to around 90%, the park and ride numbers remain at about 45%.
"The Park and Ride sides at Harford and Sprowston remain open, and we’d encourage people travelling into Norwich to continue using these.”
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The comments from Cllr Hempsall, who lives in Acle and is the area's county councillor, come following the government's renewal of the national £2 bus fare cap for standard services.
The scheme was introduced in January and was extended again earlier this month with £500m invested to extend the £2 cap on single tickets until the end of October, which will continue at £2.50 until November 2024.
The other councils involved in the joint release of the statement were Freethorpe, Reedham, Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby, Beighton, Lingwood and Burlingham, Strumpshaw and Cantley.
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