Anger over bus stops ‘plonked’ on peninsula verges

A new stance has appeared outside Cove Sailing Club

Residents say this bus stop is too far away from Cove Burgh Hall

A new bus shelter has appeared at Cove Burgh Hall – the previous one was initially installed facing the wrong way, and after failing to shelter people from the elements for several years it was turned to face the opposite direction in 2017.

New bus stops which have been ‘plonked’ in Cove and Kilcreggan could put disabled people at risk rather than helping them, a meeting heard last week.

The new stops appeared late last year as part of a £100,000 project by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) and Argyll and Bute Council.

There were immediate complaints by residents about the siting of the raised tarmac, while landowners said they hadn’t been told the work would happen.

The council responded by saying the work was being done ’as sensitively as possible’, while SPT said councillors and bus operators had been consulted.

But there was anger about the project at last week’s meeting of Cove and Kilcreggan Community Council.

“We have had a bus stop plonked on the end of our drive,” said one Cove resident.

“It is a ridiculous place to put it because the majority of people who are coming here are getting off at the burgh hall.

“The bus still stops at the burgh hall anyway, it doesn’t even use the new stop.”

She added that when the hall as busy many cars parked on the road and across the pavement, meaning disabled people would have to go along the road to reach the new stop.

And community councillor John Auld agreed: “It seems senseless that we are making people walk another 50 yards along a road.

“There is an opportunity lost because SPT has got to serve the community but they are alienating disabled passengers.

“It doesn’t help the bus users in any shape or form, it actually hinders them.”

He added that the new bus stop at the bottom of Temperance Brae in the centre of Kilcreggan was dangerous and could easily be hit by cars.

“We have got a trip hazard in the middle of the village,” he said.

“I have seen the bus hit it with its rear wheel.”

He suggested that adding a shelter to the bus stop would help to make it more visible.

But community council chairman Nick Davies said options were limited since the work had already been carried out.

“What we all have to face up to is what actually do we now want to happen, bearing in mind that this is an initiative that had the best intentions,” he said.

“It is all very well to complain but we are faced with a fait accompli.

“We need to guard against being seen as a community where when improvements are made there are complaints.”

Argyll and Bute Councillor Iain Paterson said he would take up the issue with council officials.