We want our bus shelter!

9.11.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 21st Feb 2008

Bus Shelter

The Liberal Democrats will raise concerns about the lack of bus shelters on a popular city route at next week's council meeting.

They will highlight that passengers using the 25 service from Castle Meadow to the University wait without shelter and without a seat. A problem that is also experienced in other parts of the city. At a time when encouraging people to use buses should be a priority these problems are unacceptable and there are concerns that problems like this discourage some from using public transport.

Pat Funnell, an Eaton resident who regularly uses the 25 service, said "This has been the situation since last summer when the new stop was created. Throughout the cold and wet winter there has been no shelter and no seat despite numerous requests."

Indeed, despite these requests no action has been taken due to council confusion. It was claimed that the position of the stop would making having advertisements on the shelter unacceptable, despite the fact that all shelters on Castle Meadow have adverts on them and the council needs the finance adverts bring to have the shelters. As Eaton Ward City Councillor Ros Wright commented:

"I understand that the council did not want to give permission for an Adshel bus shelter because they feared the advertisements on the shelter would spoil the view of the Castle Mound. However the Council cannot afford an Adshel shelter without advertisements which would also include a cleaning charge so we are in a no win situation.

If this Council is serious about working in partnership with the bus companies to provide good public transport then they should start by getting their act together and getting badly needed bus shelters in place.

I will be asking the Council to think again about providing a shelter using an Adshel shelter including advertisements which are in fact on all the other bus shelters on Castle Meadow."

This continues the work of the Lib Dems in campaigning for better public transport provision in the city.