One of the things that really brings the local area down that could be easily resolved is the state of the bus shelters. If you go around West Lancashire you’ll see that many of the bus shelters are vandalised and left by the council. They’re an eyesore which the council seems unwilling to sort out.

Pat Carson and I have been asking to sort out one particular bus shelter on Digmoor Road in Moorside (shown to the right). This picture was taken last year and the shelter has been further vandalised over the past few months.

Digmoor Road is one of the main roads through Moorside and Digmoor wards and this shelter is one of the first welcoming sights for visitors. It drags down the local “street scene” and shows that the council doesn’t really care about the local area.

When I’ve asked at the council I’ve been fobbed off, first that there was a review of the bus shelters and then that the bus shelters will be improved by the “quality bus routes” (which this isn’t on). Pat’s asked if we can just take out the glass and get the shelter painted ourselves, but the council say that we have to take on responsibility with the wet paint and broken glass.

Over Christmas it seems that the problem might resolve itself, but only because Arriva buses are cancelling the last bus that stops here. It was announced that the Skelmersdale – Liverpool bus was being scrapped by Arriva, another stupid decision by a company which previously stopped the main Wigan – Southport bus route from being a quality bus route by it’s refusal to run low floor accessible buses.

So when the Liverpool bus route finally ends, the stop will become redundant. Perhaps the best thing then will be to remove it altogether and for the surrounding area to be cleaned up.