Preston man asks Lancashire County Council to end bus shelter misery

The terminus has been without a cover for 14 years after the last one was repeatedly vandalised

A pensioner has asked transport bosses to install a shelter at a bus stop where passengers are forced to stand without protection from the weather.

Brian Chapman, 89, said waiting for a bus on Holme Slack Lane in Deepdale, Preston, was "a misery" for everyone, but particularly for older passengers.

The terminus has been without a cover for 14 years after the last one was repeatedly vandalised.

Lancashire County Council said its budget could not fund new shelters.

Mr Chapman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it was "hard work" for him to walk to the bus stop and he needed somewhere to rest when he gets there.

'Wouldn't take much'

"You can be waiting a while for the bus... and if the weather's bad, it's really terrible," he said.

"There's nowhere else to shelter either - but it seems like nobody [is] bothered."

Mr Chapman, who catches a bus from the stop about four times a week, said there were a lot of older people in the area who would "all benefit" from a new shelter.

"It wouldn't take much to build a small shelter with a seat in - just enough for five or six people," he added.

"We're not exactly asking for the world."

Lancashire County Council said its transport budget could only afford to maintain existing shelters and could not stretch to funding new ones.

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