BOURNEMOUTH’S deputy mayor Phil Stanley-Watts has called on the council to make urgent improvements to Boscombe Bus Station.

Cllr Stanley-Watts said he had used the buses regularly for the past year after getting rid of his car, and had received complaints from many passengers about the state of the station, behind the Sovereign Shopping Centre.

“I got rid of my car because they cost too much money, and during my mayoral year I had a car to drive me around,” he said.

“It is the first time I have relied on the buses and it has shown me some of the failings in Boscombe.

“Also when people recognise me I get all the complaints.”

Cllr Stanley-Watts said the station was dirty and rarely cleaned, had no permanent staff in place and no proper shelter in the winter.

He said bus users were often intimidated by anti-social behaviour from people hanging around outside.

One bus user, Emma Shaw, 32, told the Daily Echo she wanted to see more investment in the station.

“I would like to see some money put into the station to keep it clean and improve the shelters,” she said.

“I won’t go anywhere near the station at night time, or use the subway under the road to get here, there are always alcoholics and druggies hanging around causing problems.”

Another passenger, Joan Rackham, 80, said: “It would be good to see some improvements at the station, it gets very draughty on the corner there without much shelter.

“I think it is reasonably clean though.”

Bournemouth Council said upgraded shelters and waiting areas, real-time displays and better pedestrian access were among improvements proposed for next year.

Transportation services manager Ian Kalra, pictured above, said: “Improvements at Boscombe Bus Station are part of the Three Towns Travel, Local Sustainable Trans-port Fund programme and are in support of the Backing Boscombe campaign.

“Proposals are only in the early stages of development at this time, although new CCTV cameras have already been installed to improve security for waiting passengers.”

Concern of passengers

CLLR Stanley-Watts said passengers were concerned about a lack of bus services travelling from Boscombe to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and areas in the north of the town.

He said: “They are good in some directions, you get one every few minutes, but people often have to wait a long time to get to the hospital in the mornings. A lot of people from here work at the hospital.”

Yellow Buses said there were already 11 services through Boscombe.

Mark Ambler, head of network development, said: “The core Bournemouth to Boscombe route has 20 buses every hour while our services from Boscombe to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital will run every ten minutes from November 3.

“We are always happy to look at requests for extra services where there is sufficient demand but, based on the number of routes already operated in Boscombe, feel that this key part of our network is already well-served.”