Waiting for bus can be an endurance test

MAY I take up more valuable space in the Echo by responding to Anthony and a bus user whose identity was not revealed.

The latter letter must have been written by someone with a sense of whimsy - maybe, in younger years a regular listener to the Goon Show who enjoys Major Bloodknok et al. What fantastic imagination.

Bus shelter seats are low to make vandals uncomfortable before they kick-off. There is much useful comment in Anthony Booth’s letter.

Compared to the desiccated services in other regions of the UK, Charnwood has a plentitude of buses. The drivers are usually helpful and sociable.

The buses are warm in winter and ventilated in summer.

There are some delays - usually caused by those infernal roadworks which plague Charnwood. Why, with roadworks is there never any explanation as to what is going on and why?

Returning to the matter of the new bus shelters where the roof is on a stainless steel stalk whose two component parts slope inwards inviting rain and wind inwards towards people below whose knees when sitting protrude by four inches into the weather. Waiting for a bus in those circumstances becomes an endurance test and a mockery of the term shelter.

One final point, the Oxford Dictionary defines shelters as.....Protection against harm ... A structure keeping off rain and wind .... to screen and afford protection.

To my knowledge the two old style shelters located in Swan Street meet all the requirements of a shelter. They literally envelope anyone waiting for a bus.

David Girdler