'Daft' new bus stop ripped out after city bungling

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 10:42

IT is probably the nearest a bus stop has ever got to doing the hokey-cokey.

It started the summer standing on the pavement, as it had done for years, alongside a narrow stretch of Newhaven Road.

Then, workmen arrived to move the bus stop and the pavement out a few inches into the carriageway, creating a raised kerb and making space for a shelter.

But, just weeks later, workmen returned – to rip out the new pavement and move the bus stop back.

The to-ing and fro-ing left residents unsure whether to laugh at the sheer ineptitude or cry with frustration after all the disruption.

Alyson Cameron, who lives in Dudley Terrace, just round the corner from the bus stop, and is vice-chairwoman of Trinity Community Council, said: "This was just daft. If the council had carried out a proper consultation in the first place, then none of this would have happened.

"The council says it did carry out a consultation when this was first suggested a few years ago but a couple of notices tied to a lamp post is not really good enough.

"That section of the road is far too narrow for a bus stop of that nature. The biggest problem with the new bus stop was that it jutted out so far into the road that traffic has been struggling to get past stopping buses.

The installation of the extended bus stop was agreed by councillors last year, but work starting last month prompted a flurry of complaints.

Local Tory councillor Allan Jackson said: "The problem is that nobody really knew about the plans until it was too late and it was only when they saw it getting built that it was obvious it would cause problems.

"It maybe says something about the way this council consults people, but we are where we are.

"This was just not a good site for one of these bus boarders and there would have been too much traffic building up, not to mention that you can hardly fit two buses past each other at that point.

"There are good points for these build-out bus stops in terms of improved wheelchair access but they got it wrong this time and I'm glad to see that being recognised."

City transport leader Phil Wheeler said: "The council's then-executive approved the eastern corridor bus priority scheme at its meeting on July 31, 2007.

"The approved scheme included re-designing the road layout to provide a bus shelter in Newhaven Road at the location in question.

"We have listened to local people's current concerns that the new pavement layout could cause delays to local traffic and, in consultation with the ward councillors, we have decided to change the design."

A council spokeswoman said there would be a "minor impact" on the overall cost.