Council criticised for repainting road markings for unused bus stop
COUNCIL workers have re-painted road markings for a bus stop that has been out of use for three years.
Coun Paul Mercer contacted the Echo after he, and fellow councillor Ted Parton, spotted that the stop on Southfield Road had been freshened up, under the instruction of Leicestershire County Council, for “no logical reason”.
Coun Mercer said the stop, which is near to Bedford Square, hasn’t been in use since the town centre was pedestrianised in 2014.
He said: “We had a number of meetings with Kinch bus, which provides bus services for Loughborough, but they said it simply didn’t make sense to keep using it.
“Until a few weeks ago there were big bollards around the bus stop, but bizarrely, they have gone and there are new bus stop markings - at a considerable cost no doubt.
“They (the county council) are complaining about a lack of money but then carrying out expensive road markings for no logical reason.
“We occasionally come across people standing at the bus stop and say ‘excuse me, it’s not been running for a few years’ and that was with the bollards, god knows what without!”
Coun Parton, who is also a county councillor, said: “The instructions would have been to repaint Southfield Road. The workers would have seen a bus stop, and as they’re not local, assumed it was still used.”
He added: “I’d like to push for it to be returned. It was a very busy bus stop and it was convenient for a lot of people.”
Leicestershire County Council state that the road markings were “due a refresh and it was part of scheduled maintenance” and the cost was covered “as part of an ongoing road maintenance package”.
Andy Yeomanson, interim head of Service Highway and Transport Commissioning at the county council, said: “The county council doesn’t remove bus stops if they become redundant in case opera- tors decide to change their route and make use of them again.
“We maintain road markings to highways standards and although the lines were repainted at an out of use bus stop, the solid yellow line and high kerb should ensure it remains a no-parking zone.
“There remains a long-standing concern over cars blocking visibility to the car park exit at this location.
“Temporary bollards will return while a traffic regulation order is sought to create a bus stop clearway. A clearway, in combination with the refreshed lines, should allow the bollards to be removed permanently.”
The Echo also contacted Kinchbus to see if there are plans to reinstate the bus stop in the future.
Alex Kerr, general manager at Kinchbus, said: “We had to make significant changes to our town centre routes due to the pedestrianisation of the town centre.
“As a local company, our customers are at the heart of everything we do. If there is a strong desire from our customers to serve Southfield Road again, we’ll certainly consider it.”