Park-and-ride's 500,000th customer, Amy Gabbatiss, with Santa, park-and-ride's Mike Noake, Wilts & Dorset bus company's Gerald Good, Cllr Dennis Brown and Eric Teagle, head of forward planning and transportation at Salisbury district council. DA4604P1CHRISTMAS came early for Amy Gabbatiss, of Porton, after she took a park-and-ride bus trip into Salisbury on Friday.

Amy became the 500,00th person to use the park-and-ride service from the Beehive since its launch 33 months ago.

And to celebrate the milestone, she was presented with a bottle of champagne and a Christmas hamper when she returned to the site on Tuesday to make her daily bus trip into the city centre.

The presentation was arranged by Salisbury district council and the Wilts & Dorset bus company as a special festive thank-you to Amy for using the service.

Father Christmas was joined by the council's portfolio holder for environment and transport, Dennis Brown, and Wilts & Dorset's Salisbury manager Gerald Good to give Amy the champagne and hamper - together with a pass to use the Beehive site free of charge until the end of January 2004.

Amy said: "I am absolutely delighted to be the Beehive's 500,000th passenger. It's a lovely surprise and makes coming into work much more interesting.

"I've been using the Beehive ever since it opened. I live in Porton and commute to Salisbury every day and the Beehive has made my life a lot easier.

"There's no more hassle desperately trying to find parking spaces or getting caught up in heavy traffic."

The district council-run Beehive park-and-ride site opened on March 5, 2001, and is the first of five sites planned for south Wiltshire. Since it opened, the highest number of passengers to use the service in one day has been 2,386.

Mr Brown said: "I am delighted that Beehive has recorded such an amazing achievement of reaching 500,000 passengers in under three years. It has proved a great success, which can only make for a more pleasant, traffic-free Salisbury.

"Most days, the site is three-quarters full, and at times of the year such as Christmas, it is full every day.

"On the Saturdays leading up to Christmas, we shall even have to turn people away, which shows the demand for the service and the need to develop more park-and-ride sites in south Wiltshire."

Mr Good said: "We are really pleased to be able to celebrate this milestone and have such positive feedback from passengers who utilise the service.

"By keeping so many cars out of the city centre, park-and-ride makes a visit to Salisbury a much nicer experience for everyone.

"For the Saturdays leading up to Christmas, demand is so high that we use our big red double-deck buses in place of the normal park-and-ride buses."