The removal of a bus shelter from outside a new hospital building could be harmful to people’s health, a councillor has warned.
Labour councillor Nancy Platts said that she planned to raise the matter at a Hospital Liaison Group meeting next week.
The bus shelter serving eastbound routes is being removed from outside the new Royal Sussex County Hospital building – the newly named Louisa Martindale building – in Eastern Road.
The East Brighton ward councillor became aware of the problem after a shelter was removed from outside the Sussex Eye Hospital in Eastern Road to make way for a new crossing.
Councillor Platts spoke to Brighton and Hove City Council officials and learnt that the shelter from the eastbound side would be moved to replace the westbound one as more people travel in that direction.
Passenger figures from the start of September to the end of last month found that 97,683 people travelled west – more than 1,000 a day – while 14,307 travelled east, almost 160 a day.
Councillor Platts also found that the council was using “temporary” shelters because it did not have the budget for new structures.
These shelters were “borrowed” from other parts of the country through a contractor.
A replacement shelter previously proposed for the site was found to be “not structurally sound”.
Councillor Platts said: “I am not happy with the solutions being found – in fact, I find them quite bizarre.
“While the numbers for the eastbound stop are a lot lower, that’s not of much comfort if you are one of the 159 people waiting at a bus stop in the rain and getting soaked to the skin because there is no shelter.
“We have put in place a multimillion-pound hospital but can’t afford a bus shelter on each side of the road so the council is swapping them from one side of the road to the other.
“I am hoping someone can contribute the funding to enable us to have a shelter for people on both sides of the road.
“It seems to undermine health interventions if people come out of the hospital after treatment only to get soaked in the rain afterwards.
“Meanwhile, it seems we are being left having to share one bus shelter outside our newly built multimillion-pound hospital.”
Councillor Platts plans will ask further questions about the bus shelters at the Hospital Liaison Group meeting on Monday (12 December) from 6pm to 7.30pm in the Audrey Emerton Building.
So the council can’t afford to build bus shelters for those who can’t walk or cycle, but is quite happy to throw £1m at able cycle hangars.
And they want to encourage motorists to switch to sustainable buses?
Perhaps Green Councillors Davis and Lloyd could reach into their £10m a year “Carbon Neutral (slush) Fund” from our council tax?
I’ll stick to my car and ask for appointments at Haywards Heath, Worthing, Shoreham, or Chichester instead.
Do you ever have anything better to do than complain about and persecute cyclists on news websites,Twitter and Facebook? 🙄
David Jacobs
Persecute cyclists ?
Can you explain where the poster has shown hostility or ill-treatment towards any cyclist ?
No thought not.
Have a look at his Twitter feed.He’s always complaining about cyclists.
David Jacobs
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve not checked his twitter feed but I accept your comment.
According to LinkedIn you are unemployed at the moment so you obviously have nothing better to do than look at my twitter feed.
Yes, I want to hold to account cycling activists who ignore the needs of the elderly, the disabled, residents, tradesmen, businesses, and other road users, whilst demanding they are provided with infrastructure that they rarely use and just causes delays and increased traffic emissions.
Perhaps you could add something of value to this story rather than desperately using ad hominem attacks.
Removal of bus shelters, closing down of all public toilets – what on earth is going on here, with this bizarre council? Are they expecting patients to cycle to and from the hospital, or pay the exorbitant costs of getting a taxi? Or just get soaked while waiting for a bus? They have already turned Brighton & Hove into the most expensive dump on the South Coast. How much longer to we have to put up with their crazy, badly thought out projects?
I live in this area. It’s not just the bus shelter. They’ve moved the bus stop a lot further away and closed the stop before (Chesham St) then removed the busstop shelter. It’s really difficult for me as someone with disabilities. There are a lot of vulnerable people in my area.
Disgraceful. Showing utter contempt for people dependant on public transport.
The new site of the east-bound bus stop is much more exposed to the weather than when it was outside the eye hospital.Passengers need substantial protection at the new site.The tiny bus shelter currently on the westward side of the road is not fit for purpose.
Also, if there weren’t so many cancelled and delayed buses, then people wouldn’t have to wait so long at the bus stops. I dont know how the bus company can justify running a service with so many missing buses. When the buses do arrive they are already full.
Well I am sure Macdonald’s or Burger King would pay for the advertising space…
The Greens’ intense hatred of motorists has now extended to hospital patients.
Such a bizarre article – are the illogicalities down to Cllr Platts, or the City Council, or the reporter? Or perhaps all three?
So let’s see:
Today the eastbound bus-shelter (which took far too long to get installed, after the previous location had to make way for the new-build works) was in place. It looked to be in good condition, so money to buy a replacement not needed – but pls see below.
The westbound bus-shelter (a double-length one, needed for the many hospital staff and visitors/patients travelling in to the centre of town and beyond) also looked to be in excellent condition earlier in 2022, so that’s another shelter our Council presumably owns (the Council pays for bus-stops in some way, not the bus company) in stock and so money not needed for purchasing another one for there ?
But, big “But”, if that westbound bus-stop is no longer situated somewhere along the facade of the Eye Hospital then why not?
In the article there’s a vague mention of a new(?) zebra(?) “crossing” causing relocation of the Eye Hospital stop?
From memory the current crossing over Eastern Road, just east of the exit from the Barry Building across to the Audrey Emerton Building, was previously located more to the east, so relocating it again should in no way cause there to no longer be any stop outside Sussex Eye Hospital, surely?
Indeed, vision-impaired patients leaving the Eye Hospital need to reach that bus-stop, when travelling westwards, as easily as possible and without crossing any roads (pupil dilation drops, given to examine the eye, can cause blurred vision for hours after an examination!).
But let’s take a closer look at the eastbound situation:
Not only is that stop important for those with Whitehawk as a destination, there are other passengers who wish to visit the Lidl supermarket, or perhaps Asda or Wetherspoons at Brighton Marina etc, so it is an important stop.
Considered by the NHS to be so important that, years ago at a public meeting held by the NHS in the Audrey Emerton Building, to gather reactions to the then proposed 3Ts hospital re-build, a member of the project team proudly showed visuals whereby the footpath would be in a colonnade, along Eastern Road with the upper floors of the new-build cantilevered out to create a sheltered public footpath, with an inset bus-bay to minimise halted buses delaying traffic on Eastern Road. And in this sheltered colonnade smart benches were shown, on which passengers could wait in comfort for a bus (having perhaps come out of the new building at just this point).
So if those plans are on the verge of being faithfully implemented then eastbound passengers can soon enjoy excellent facilities, surely?
Plus the existing eastbound shelter becomes redundant, and can then be installed at another City bus-stop needing a shelter?
So what exactly is the nature of the problem(s) purportedly being reported-on above?
Possibly our NHS Hospitals Trust, having apparently already spent over £500 million of taxpayers on this vanity project (instead needing to be built on stilts over the massive area of surface car-parks to the east of Gatwick, with a direct pedestrian link to the railway station – there’s a far greater likelihood of a major plane-crash up there, than there is of Brighton having to cope with a ship on fire in the Channel – which the French are far better equipped to deal with than we are!) now balking at spending peanuts to fulfil their promise of providing an excellent eastbound bus-stop?
Can we be told the real truth, please?
Every year thousands of people do contribute towards the cost of bus shelters.. it’s called council tax.
The ambulance service is so reduced…people have to make their own way to and from the hospital anyway. Try getting a parking space nearby if you’re thinking of going by car! Doesn’t having a bus stop outside make sense?
It’s not about sense though is it?
Common sense has left left the building… but not by bus!
Less taxpayers’ money should be spent on council vanity projects, including yet more bike hangars, and more on bus shelters and public toilets, which are far more urgent. But what else can one expect from such a backward and incompetent bunch of clowns with which Brighton & Hove council is now stuck? It would be interesting to know how many council workers actually use public transport to get to and from work, and ever have to find a public toilet.
Oh, I am forgetting! Most of them are working(?) from home, aren’t they? So, they are not affected by such problems.
Enough money for bikes but not for humans, sounds like a green policy…