A SHARED car scheme could free up parking spaces in a Worcester suburb - and save residents some cash.

A car club vehicle is now based at Worcester Baptist Church, giving easy access to Arboretum residents signed up to the car club run by rental firm Enterprise.

County councillor Matthew Jenkins, city councillor Karen Lewing and resident Hannah Cooper found support for a car club in the Arboretum after carrying out a survey in 2021.

They say people who drive less than 8,000 miles a year could save up to £3,500 annually by joining.

READ MORE: Here's what you need to know about the Arboretum residential parking scheme

“You pay a yearly fee and then when you want the car, just book it using an app and pay by the hour,” said Mr Jenkins. “It’s a fairly small charge.

“It’s well known that in the Arboretum we’ve got the problem of having too many parked cars and a lack of space on the road.

“They say one car club car can take about 10 other cars off the road. In the Arboretum those 10 spaces are like gold dust.

'Residents can save money by joining car club'

“Having residents’ parking has helped but hopefully this will be the start of big improvements in the area.”

Mr Jenkins said he had taken the car club car to the Guildhall for the environment summit taking place there on Friday (September 30) and that there are many people who could benefit from using it.

“There are lots of people who only use their cars occasionally - to go to hospital appointments, do a big shop or take a load of things down the tip - and they’d be saving money by doing this,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of positive responses already and if this is successful then there can be a second car and a third - and this can be replicated in other parts of Worcester.

“If we can have five or 10 car share cars around the city, think how many cars we can get off the road.

“It’s carbon-saving as well. It’s always going to be a fairly new car and this one is a hybrid - maybe in the future we’ll get a fully electric one. There’s great potential.”