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.
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