Bus station stays open for now
THE VIKING bus station, in Lerwick, will stay open while Shetland Islands Council is considering alternative options to closure, including commercial use.
Councillors had been heavily lobbied by voters after plans to close the “well-used” facility emerged earlier this week.
And a petition with more than 500 signatures, collected in just three days, was handed in to councillors just before a meeting of the transport committee, on Friday afternoon.
At the meeting it quickly became clear that there was little appetite among members to close the bus station, described by westside councillor Frank Robertson as an “integral part of the bus network”.
Officials, tasked with the job to find massive savings from council budgets, had recommended closing the facility in a bid to save almost £80,000 annually.
Executive director for infrastructure Phil Crossland said the bus station as such would not close, just the waiting room, while the freight centre would be transferred to Gremista in the hope the commercial sector might take it on.
But he quickly came under fire when being interrogated by councillors as to why bus users had not been spoken to.
Councillors also criticised that the figures of potential savings didn’t stack up, while Andrea Manson wondered why a waiting room plus freight centre is paying rates of almost £16,500.
Councillor Robertson, a regular bus user, was the most outspoken in his criticism: “This is appallingly bad. The council has gone through the usual tick-box exercise.
“People who are using the service have not been consulted. Unless you use the service you can’t understand how it operates.”
Shetland north councillor Alastair Cooper also outed himself as a regular user since he got his bus pass.
He said the Viking bus station was part of people’s life who were “trying to make a living in the country areas.”
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A proposal by chairman Allan Wishart to seek a change in the use of the building to “food or retail activity compatible with a waiting room”, and then test the market to see if a private enterprise would be prepared to take it on was accepted.
Drew Ratter added that it was time for the council to come up with some joined-up thinking rather than the usual “salami slicing” approach to savings.
It was after all the same council that was encouraging the public to use the bus more regularly and leave the car at home, he said.
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