6:21am Friday 9th May 2008
By James Morton
A POOLE conservation group has added its voice to the growing wave of despair at the "filthy" and "grimy" state of Poole's bus station.
With the start of the tourist season imminent, the Society of Poole Men has approached the Borough of Poole over the unwelcoming condition of the town's transport gateway.
The group backed the Daily Echo's lead story on Saturday and is urging an overdue makeover of the Kingland Road terminal.
Ian Andrews, president of the society, said the station was in dire need of a clean-up and visitors' current first impressions would be of a "two-bit town".
He said: "We take a pride in Poole and there is no pride in anyone who travels by bus having to face up to a grimy bus station.
"I know a lot of other towns whose stations are much better as those towns take pride in the first impression they give visitors."
Arriving in the gloom of the bus station immediately puts visitors in a "downbeat mood", added Mr Andrews.
A letter from the society highlighted grubby paths, walls and pillars, broken rubbish bins and neglected facilities, such as the public payphones.
Three bodies hold a stake in the station - the council, Wilts and Dorset and private company Grosvenor, which owns the Dolphin Centre.
Steve Tite, principal manager for transport services at the council, admitted the shared responsibility for the station sometimes left a grey area in respect of cleaning duties.
He said: "Historically, it is up to whoever owns the land and that is where the problem lies.
"We are looking to get together with Wilts and Dorset and rationalise things."
Mr Tite said a steam clean of the station was due to take place, with rubbish bins also being replaced.
A £240,000 improvement scheme - including repainting, new lights, seats and bins, and better signage - is due to begin later this year, once the tourist season ends.
Plans to completely re-build the station form part of the council's Town Centre North Action Plan, but this would not happen until 2012 at the earliest.
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