New bus shelters for Exeter

A total of 22 are set to be installed over the next year

The misery of Exeter residents being forced to stand in the rain and wait for a bus may soon be coming to an end.

A total of 22 new bus shelters are set to be installed in the City over the next year, with priority to be given to sites where for whatever reason there is no shelter.

Nine new shelters were agreed by the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee to be installed when they met in January 2019, but Monday’s committee meeting heard that none of them had yet been put in place.

Councillors agreed that they wanted a timetable to be agreed within the next two weeks, and also put forward a list of ten locations where bus shelters are to be installed based on this year’s list of the annual free shelters included in the contract, plus those paid for from the County Council’s share of Clear Channel’s digital advertising revenue.

A further three shelters, funded by developer contributions from housing schemes,  are set to installed in the next three months.

LAST YEAR’S SHELTERS NOT YET INSTALLED

• Exeter Road (After The Retreat Drive junction) (T bus)
• Russell Way (Opposite Russell Walk) (D)
• 8 Grecian Way (Opp Glave Saunders Avenue) (Towards City Centre) (D)
• Opp Lidl, Wonford (S)
• The Imperial, New North Road (D)
• Mount Pleasant Road (Mount Pleasant Health Centre) (P)
• 90 Cowick Lane (after Franklyn Drive junction) (Inbound) (A)
• Fathings, Shillingford Road Opp Faifield Rd (A)
• Knowle Drive / Gloucester Rd junc (E)

DEVELOPER FUNDED SHELTERS

• Admiral Way (Feb 2020)
• Harrington Lane (March 2020)
• Newcourt (April 2020)

THE PROPOSED LOCATIONS OF THE NEW SHELTERS

• Chancellors Way
• 36 Collins Road (Approaching Rollestone Crescent junction) (P)
• Mount Pleasant Road (Opposite Mount Pleasant Health Centre) (P)
• Summerway, Junc Bernadette Close (F2)
• 90 Sweetbrier Lane (Opposite Whiteway Drive) (A)
• 151 Hamlin Lane (Opposite Hanover Road Junction) (A)
• 43 Smith Field Road (Approaching Ashleigh) (A)
• East Wonford Hill (After Rifford Road junction)
• Lakeside Avenue
• Sidmouth Road (Falcon service)

The HATOC heard that the criteria for selection were whether there had been a request for a shelter, the likely level of usage of the shelter, the shelter’s contribution to the furtherance of sustainable transport and whether alternative reasonably nearby stops already have shelters.

The committee unanimously agreed to the new priority list of new shelters to be installed over and above the replacement programme, with a further meeting set to take place to decide the order of priority. Those not installed as part of the first batch would then be covered by the next two free shelters provision in May 2020 and the digital revenue share, with all ten new shelters to be installed either this or next year.

On the outstanding list of shelters agreed last year but not yet installed, Cllr Yvonne Atkinson, chairman of the committee, proposed that the Highways department have two weeks to advise the committee of how they plan to clear the backlog and what the timetable they will then be working to.

She added: “If they aren’t in by those dates, then I will be jumping up and down as it will be our fault.”

A report to the meeting of Dave Black, Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment, said: “Progress on the replacement programme is being monitored and priority is being given to sites where for whatever reason there is no shelter. The use of digital advertising revenue plus annual free shelters adds to the stock of shelters and the proposed priority list is put forward as the most appropriate use of this option.”

The committee also heard that the developer-funded bus shelters sites will be surveyed as soon as possible with installation being complete by February 2020 for Admiral Way, March 2020 for Harrington Lane and Newcourt will be commence by April 2020, subject to site design issues being resolved.

It was confirmed that the shelters installed in Sidwell Street and Cheeke Street as part of the Bus Station redevelopment are part of the Clear Channel agreement, and that  Clear Channel are working on a possible experimental facility to incorporate a real time bus information sign into a shelter.