Finally open... but some users are fuming!

Welshpool bus users are fuming that a new route to incorporate the town’s £500,000 travel hub has excluded the west side of the town.

Back in May, Powys County Council promised a consultation on the new bus routes after rumours spread that the X75 Llanidloes-Shrewsbury route would no longer be stopping at Mount Street at the ‘top of town’.

Instead it will go straight to the travel hub via Salop Road, Mill Lane, Severn Street and Berriew Road.

Users at the west side of Welshpool were so concerned that a 180-name petition was handed in to the county council via Cllr Richard Church, who represents the Castle Ward is a Cabinet Member for a Safer Powys. 

And after its long-awaited opening yesterday, we found out from one user just how much this will impact her, and many others that use the service to reach places like Shrewsbury Hospital.

“This is of great inconvenience to me living up Mount Street,” she told us. “The dark winter months are coming where I will now have to walk down to the bus station to catch the 7.30am bus as I work full time in Shrewsbury.

“People living up this end of town, many of which are elderly, have hospital appointments in Shrewsbury and will be faced with the same dilemma.

“The pavements can be treacherous in the winter, then all the way back up again in the dark on the last bus. I have had two hip replacements.”

Cllr Church said that he has asked for the decision be re-considered both in light of the petition and the earlier commitment to consult before any major changes to bus routes.

“I am not satisfied that there has been adequate consultation on these changes and the communication of the new routes on the opening of the new bus station has simply not been good enough,” he said.

“I have strongly made these points to senior officers of the Council.”

He added that “there was considerable confusion” on Monday morning because the signage and timetables of the new bus routes were not in place until mid-morning, so people were waiting for the X75 which never turned up.

We have contacted Powys County Council for comment.

The travel hub caused controversy during its construction when Powys gave the go ahead for a hedgerow and a number of trees to be removed. However, several older trees remained and are now incorporated into the new site.