This giant Winchester car park cost more than £3.6m of taxpayers' money to build after years of legal battle with residents who fought to save the former meadow from the bulldozers.

But the 428-space extended park-and-ride site at Bar End is half-empty most weekdays, not packed with commuter cars, as shown in this photograph, taken at 2pm. On Saturdays, even fewer motorists use it.

Now it has been branded a "hugely expensive white elephant," by one of its chief critics.

But city and county council transport chiefs have defended the extension to St Catherine's car park, saying it is still early days as it has only been open six months.

The empty spaces are potentially embarrassing to Hampshire County Council which fought a long and costly legal battle to build on the grassed-over former A33.

The site had been given to the people of Winchester and restored to meadowland in compensation for the M3 cutting a swathe through Twyford Down.

The legal battle involved a public inquiry and two judicial reviews.

Further delays and costs were incurred when eco-warriers tried to stop work by tying themselves to trees and digging tunnels on the land.

Keith Story, a chief campaigner against the scheme, said: "The extension is a very expensive white elephant, a shameful waste of public money. They have destroyed an important part of Winchester's green heritage for political correctness because park and ride is supposed to be a desirable thing. They would have done less harm if they had set fire to the money."

He added: "Even if you agree with park and ride, we always said the extension was in the wrong place. A new facility should have been built on the south-west of Winchester to catch the huge number of commuters coming into the city via Romsey Road."

But Alan Jowsey, transport manager for Winchester City Council, hit back, saying: "Usage is increasing month by month, so it is certainly not a white elephant."

He said council figures showed that 2,600 cars per week were using the facility. But he admitted that St Catherine's and Bar Field car parks, which have a total 783 spaces, are still only 50% full on weekdays and emptier at weekends.

The council hopes that more commuters will switch to park and ride after last month's hike in season ticket charges for city centre car parks. Season ticket holders are to be offered a two-week free trial of the scheme, a perk already offered to staff at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and enjoyed all year round by city council employees.

Mr Jowsey said: "We are keen to attract more people who are working in Winchester and still parking all-day in city car parks. That is our target, to reduce congestion and air quality problems by getting people who are driving into the city to use park and ride instead.

"This should also free up short-stay car parking for shoppers who don't want to use park and ride. But we anticipate it will take several months for people to switch over."

A Hampshire County Council spokesman added: "The extension caters for existing and future need, so it would be unrealistic on anyone's part to expect it to be completely full every day when it has only been in operation for just a few months."

The county council says it built the extension at Bar End in response to increasing demand. The plan is still to build park-and-ride sites at other locations around the city.