£6,000 bus stop built on South Yorkshire road - with no bus routes

Residents of a South Yorkshire village have been left baffled after a blundering council built a brand new bus shelter – on a road with no public transport.
The bus stop which has been built on a Maltby road with no bus routes. (Photo: SWNS).The bus stop which has been built on a Maltby road with no bus routes. (Photo: SWNS).
The bus stop which has been built on a Maltby road with no bus routes. (Photo: SWNS).

The twice-daily bus service running along a street in Maltby, Rotherham was axed in March.

But that didn’t stop officials spending £6,000 of taxpayers’ money on a shelter with seats and a roof in May.

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Red-faced council chiefs have since apologised for the gaffe and have had to attach a sign, reading: ‘Please note that this bus stop is no longer in use.’

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Tickhill Road resident Donna Marie Hallam, said: ‘About two weeks ago I came home and saw eight workmen putting a new bus shelter up.

‘At the time I didn’t know the route had stopped but before that buses only came down the road twice a day so it wouldn’t have been worth spending £6,000 on a stop.

‘When I found out the route had stopped altogether, I couldn’t believe it, I just thought ‘what a complete waste of money’.

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‘There are so many important things to spend money on but they go and blow thousands on this.’

The shelter will now be removed and reinstalled elsewhere.

Pat Woodhouse added: ‘What a waste of money, with the new time table it’s pointless.

‘It would be better off somewhere a bus stop serves the local community.’

The shelter was erected by workers from the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), which is supervised by the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority.

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A SYPTE spokesman said plans for a new shelter on Tickhill Road were put in place as part of an agreement between the authority and a property developer.

At the time of the deal, officials hadn’t yet arranged for a bus route to be moved from the residential road, the spokesman added.

They said: ‘We are reviewing our installation processes to prevent this, where possible, from happening again.’ The shelter is now set to be removed and installed in a nearby street that does have a bus service.