Local Green Party Town Councillor urges Shropshire Council to do its duty and clean-up Oswestry Bus station

Local Town Councillor for Castle Ward, Oswestry, Duncan 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, 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display unit hasn’t worked for years, and the helpful copy of the train timetable on the main noticeboard is five years out of date!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.

I understand that bus operators pay Shropshire Council 55p for every departure for the maintenance of these facilities and this charge is then passed on in their fares. There’s not much to maintain, there is no toilet, cafe or waiting room so the least that Shropshire Council can do is to keep what little there is clean and make sure accurate and relevant information is on display. 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?”.