Oswestry bus station in desperate need of improvement, says mayor
A town mayor has blasted Shropshire Council for treating bus users as “second class citizens” over its lack of bus station maintenance.
Councillor Duncan Kerr, mayor of Oswestry, says the state of the facilities at the town’s bus station and stops has contributed to a decline in the number of people choosing public transport in the area.
He has asked the council to fund improvements to the bus station, or at the very least ensure that money collected from operators – 55p per departure from the bus station – is used to maintain it to an acceptable standard.
Councillor Kerr said: “The government recently been reported that there has been a 1.7 million drop in bus journeys across the county in the past five years.
“Anyone who has recently visited Oswestry’s bus station will have a good idea why.
“The place feels very unkempt, bus timetables are unreadable, the shelters are dirty with bolts missing from the panels, and the paddle signs for the bus stops are in an appalling state.
“I’m told the electronic Realtime display unit hasn’t worked for years and the copy of the train timetable on the main noticeboard is five years out of date.
“At a time when we need to maintain and improve bus travel and give people a sense of pride in our town it is simply not good enough.
“Car drivers and train passengers don’t have to put up with this neglect so why does Shropshire Council continue to treat bus passengers as second-class citizens?”
He said that there was no waiting room toilet or cafe to maintain.
Shropshire Council has been asked to comment.
