Gosport faces more delays to replace its 'knackered' bus station

Councillor Peter Chegwyn, leader of Gosport Borough Council, has shared concerns with the progress of the Gosport interchange project which was approved by Hampshire County Council in May last year.

The current bus station on South Street was built in the 1970s, in 2012 it was described as ‘knackered’ by the council’s then-chief executive when the original redevelopment plans were drawn up.

Cllr Chegwyn said: ‘The new bus station which the county was supposed to have finished this month they haven’t even started.

‘The county council have failed to get their act in order, the money had to be spent by this month and now there’s a risk they will lose millions of pounds of government funding.

‘Presumably, if they don’t get the government funding the new bus station will not be built then we as a borough council will have to sort out the old one which we’re determined to do.

‘The time one spends sorting out problems not of our making – £5.4m for a perspex shelter and six white lines but because the buses can’t come down Mumby Road they have to spend millions going through the town centre.

‘Our fallback position is we just have to move the buses to the front of the tarmac near the road and get on with demolishing the building.’

The proposal involves the construction of a new bus shelter on Mumby Road together with a replacement taxi rank and ancillary facilities.

A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: ‘The Department for Transport (DfT) is currently reviewing the national Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) programme as part of a wider budgetary review.

‘The Portsmouth City Region TCF programme includes the Gosport Interchange scheme.

‘Discussions are ongoing with the DfT and their appointed consultants, who are undertaking the review, and Hampshire County Council is continuing to prepare the scheme for construction.

‘Work will not start until a final decision is received from the DfT.’