BUS company and council bosses have been urged to try walking from Poole bus station to the Quay in high heels.

The call comes from a councillor who says the idea would help them appreciate the need for more buses go as far as the Old Town.

Town centre councillor Mark Howell wants the popular M1 and M2 bus routes to be extended to the Quay. Morebus recently unveiled the first two of 41 new vehicles on the routes, which will cost it £7.2million.

He said: “It’s great that these new buses have been introduced but the M1/M2 needs to be extended into Poole Town to help revitalise Poole Quay and encourage regeneration. Currently they terminate at Poole bus station, which is 15 minutes’ walk from Poole Quay. Changing buses at the bus station is inconvenient and can involve long waits in the evening.

“It’s a chicken and egg situation. The bus company says there would not be enough customers to run an extended service, but part of the reason there is not enough custom is that the Quay is difficult to get to by public transport.

“I have challenged Andrew Wickham of Morebus and Julian Macloughlin, head of transportation at BoP, to work together to find a solution. I have suggested that they attempt to walk from the bus station to Poole Quay in ladies’ high heels to gain a better appreciation of the issue.”

Mr Wickham said: “We very much support any initiative that encourages more people to visit the town centre and Poole Quay – and extending the M1 and M2 services is an interesting idea. However there are some challenges to overcome before we’re able to consider doing this.

“The frequency of buses for both services is such that we would need additional vehicles, at considerable cost per year, if we were to extend the routes. We run the M1 and M2 at our own cost so, assuming no additional financial support is available, any extra buses would present a very ambitious revenue target.

“Poole’s current congestion levels are another important consideration. At present our routes end at the bus station to counter unpredictable traffic issues. The station gives us space to build in ‘recovery time’ to help ensure our buses run to time. If the Quay was to become the terminal point, we would need extra space for this.”

He added: “We would also need access at all times - which might prove difficult when traffic is prohibited during special events and so on.

“We must protect the reliability of these very important routes because they really do stand or fall based on the revenue we collect for them.”

He pointed out that other buses stopped near Poole Quay and said the company would amend the audio-visual announcements on its buses to point this out to passengers arriving at the bus station.

“We will also continue to listen to feedback from our customers, making further improvements to our existing services wherever we can,” he added.