Mayor vows to review bus stop move after passenger backlash
ELDERLY and disabled passengers left stranded when a city centre bus stop was moved away from Broadmead shopping centre have been given fresh hope it will be put back where it was.
Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said it was “really important that we will review what has happened here” following a flood of complaints following the relocation of the 75/76 from Primark to Rupert Street.
But it must remain in place until the next timetable review in September.
Mr Rees’s pledge came in response to a question submitted by the councillor for Bishopsworth, Councillor Richard Eddy, at members’ forum on Tuesday, March 19, urging him to reconsider the move.
In a written reply, the mayor said: “Whenever changes are made they are always up for review. The feed- back is being considered now.
“Any information you and other councillors can provide will help inform the September timetable change, when this can next be reviewed.”
Mr Eddy told the meeting that bus users should have been consulted.
But he added: “I welcome the mayor’s assurance that when the bus timetables are changed in September, there is a possibility it will be looked at again.”
Mr Rees said: “There was a process we went through.
“No one came to my desk and said, ‘Hey, Marvin, shall we move the bus stop?’
“Sometimes we employ officers to use their discretion and they make decisions they think will make sense.
“Sometimes they warrant a full consultation and sometimes they don’t.
“If we consulted on every decision we had to make, you’d end up with a log-jammed city.
“It’s really important that we will review what has happened here.
“They made the decisions with the right intentions and if it’s not working then we can change it.
“If it is working and people get used to it we can keep it as it is.”
The bus stop was moved in Janu- ary when the M1 MetroBus, from Cribbs Causeway to Hengrove, began operating.
Before the meeting, Mr Eddy said the change to the service, which calls at Bishopston, Stokes Croft, Bedminster, Bishopsworth and Hartcliffe and Withywood, had hit elderly and disabled shoppers the hardest because Rupert Street was significantly further away from Broadmead.
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If we consulted on every decision we had to make, you’d end up with a log-jammed city
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees