New bus stop in St Ives a ‘hazard to drivers’

A NEW bus stop being built in St Ives will be a hazard to motorists, according to an experienced bus driver.

Martin Rodgers, who has driven buses for 10 years, claimed that the Station Road stop, which is due to be partially completed this Sunday (July 22) when new bus routes for the town are due to take effect, will be dangerous.

The Whippet driver said the stop and platform should be moved as motorists would “take their lives into their hands” passing buses parked at the stop without being able to see whether vehicles were coming out of the nearby Market Hill junction.

“With the platform sticking out 6.5ft into the road and the bus adding an extra 6-8ft, buses will take up around three-quarters of the road,” he told The Hunts Post.

“People manoeuvring around the buses are not going to see anything. It’s going to cause an accident.

“It’s just going to be a mistake and it would be better to move the stop further away from the junction.”

The 56-year-old added that, when Cambridgeshire County Council held its tests to determine whether the position was safe, buses were parked next to the kerb and not in a position that would replicate the use of a platform.

Mr Rodgers, of Barley Close, St Ives, said: “I can’t remember buses being parked in the middle of the road during the trials, so how can they say that the stop is safe when it hasn’t been through a proper trial?”

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman refused to respond to the allegations, but added that the temporary bus stop would be completed by Sunday, and a bus stop frame would be delivered shortly.

He also blamed the weather for the delay – the stop should have been completed by the end of June.

Concerns about the stop, which is being installed in an attempt to cut the number of times pedestrians need to cross Harrison Way to catch a guided bus, have also been raised by St Ives town councillors.