Yate bus station - some real progress in sight?

Chris Willmore reports:

Well flatten me with the feather! S Glos officers asked for a meeting urgently this week to discuss the survey. Dave Buckland (the officer who had the guts to come to meet us back in Feb) met Ruth Davis, Paul Hulbert, Ian Blair, Martin Monk and me - and came with draft plans!!! AND THEY HAVE LISTENED!!!! The plans reflect what you said in the survey.

We made some practical comments and suggestions and he has gone off to refine the drawings and then get quotes.

£15-20k has been found from the source we suggested (traffic management "Section 106" monies). He is proposing a proper shelter, under the canopy, running most of the distance from one end pillar to the other, and pretty deep, so it will be much bigger than the old ones combined; has two exits out to the buses, and one entry point at the back.

The existing benches will be moved to the two ends of the canopy, and new seats in the shelter will be a mix of perch, bench and property seats with arms. He has promised to ensure the floor comes to the ground so our ankles do not freeze. He had even checked the wind directions to work out where we needed the doors to minimise impact.

It's still not perfect, and we have yet to see the final version following this meeting, but, it is a mile better than the current position.

I am really sorry everyone is drowning there at present. Dave Buckland says they can use an existing contractor so do not have to go out to new tender, but that the lead time on installation is about 6 weeks - so, it looks to me as if the work will be done during the school holidays......

We did not have electronic copies of the papers at the meeting, so we cannot post them, but you can see the type, called Gullwing at http://www.trueform.co.uk/trueform-products.asp?productTypeID=27. As soon as we get electronic copies of the final plans, we will post a link here on the blog.