Bus shelters in Bradley Stoke deemed too shabby for a prestige bus route enhanced by millions of pounds of government money are to be replaced as part of a £140,000 package of additional spending.
Local Councillors expressed concern in 2009 when South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) began ripping out many of the Town Council-owned green bus shelters and replacing them with hi-tech silver flat-roofed ones at a cost of £20,000 per stop.
Town Councillors demanded that SGC put the old shelters into storage for possible use at sites where there is currently no shelter but this turned out to be impractical due to damage caused during removal.
The West of England Partnership, responsible for overseeing the £70 million Greater Bristol Bus Network project, originally planned to leave a small number of old-style shelters along the 73 route in Bradley Stoke but has now decided to spend extra cash to replace the small number that remain in order to improve the image of ‘Corridor 4’ that runs from Bristol city Centre to Cribbs Causeway.
The extra money was approved at a recent meeting of the WoEP’s Joint Transport Executive Committee, justified by the following agenda statement:
“At Bradley Stoke / Little Stoke, there are parish owned shelters which are in a poor condition due to age, and the comparison with the new Trueform shelters that have been erected is very noticeable. The image of Corridor 4 will benefit from the replacement of these shelters by providing a more aesthetic and consistent standard of shelter provision.”
The extra £140,000 spend covers upgrading shelters in Bradley Stoke and Little Stoke and improving the pavements at shelters in Filton Avenue.
The new shelters already installed in Bradley Stoke are currently being wired up with electricity to power real-time displays that will show the estimated arrival times of the next three buses. Trenches are being dug to tap into the power supply at the base of an existing street light (often not the nearest one, as we reported last week).
The old-style bus shelters had been due to receive a lick of paint in October 2010 as part of a community action day by staff from local McDonald’s restaurants but the initiative was cancelled due to poor weather.
£20,000 per shelter!
That sum just crystallises how wasteful those who are elected to serve and spend our money wisely really are.
But don’t worry, they will be giving themselves a slap on the back and some vouchers for doing so well.
The older style shelters did give some shelter from the rain, but the new ones have such a small roof (which is far too high) that they offer virtually no protection from the elements at all.
And, as for the seat, that’s a laugh.