Bus shelters to be removed but new ones delayed

Plymouth Buses are removing and replacing bus shelters on Royal Parade

Old bus shelters are being removed in Plymouth city centre and there is set to be a "delay" before they are replaced with new, bigger ones.

Plymouth City Council said the 12 shelters on the westbound side of Royal Parade would be taken down and replaced with 15 new ones with upgraded seating and more space for wheelchair users and pushchairs.

The council apologised for the delay in replacing them, saying it was "far from ideal".

"We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause," said the council.

'Bear with us'

"We are urgently looking for some form of temporary shelter with seating."

Councillor Mark Coker, Plymouth's cabinet member for transport, said: "We are conscious that this is not an ideal time of year to remove shelters and we are asking you to please bear with us."

Plymouth City Council had planned to coincide removing the shelters with the start of the Royal Parade improvement scheme, which has now been delayed.

The council said negotiations had "proved unsuccessful" and it was "working quickly to resolve this", adding there would be no shelters on Royal Parade between Courtenay Street and St Andrews Cross " for a period of time".

There will be a delay before the old bus shelters are replaced

Bus services are set to return to their original stops on Royal Parade once the old shelters have been removed, the authority said.

It said bus shelters would not be replaced immediately and stops would be marked with a temporary bus stop flag and a timetable attached to the pole.

The existing bus shelters are owned by JCDecaux whose contract in Plymouth has now ended. They will be replaced by the new contract holder, Clear Channel Outdoor.

Plymouth City Council said one shelter a day would be removed from Royal Parade and the Plymotion Team would be available to help direct passengers.

On the day each shelter is removed, bus services that would normally use that stop will be temporarily moved to outside Premier Inn on Derry's Cross roundabout.

The city council said it had considered other options, such as bringing forward the installation of new shelters.

Council bosses said it would be too confusing to install new shelters, take them out for preparation for the main Royal Parade scheme and then put them back and it would have cost about £100,000.

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].