Conservatives Cock up Chatham Bus Station?

Chatham Bus station under construction.

Last Monday Medway's "Dynamic Water Front Bus Facility" opened to the Public with a number of things missing or still under construction. It was also running approximately 6 months late and £2 million over its original budget. Understandably there is a bit of a furor about the whole project.

Public response to the new facility or "Mushrooms" as it has been described by Medway resident Robin Juste Emery, has been fairly mixed.

It would have been a nice idea if they had just listened to what people were saying. There aren't enough seats, they aren't close enough to the stands and there are still no bins.
Says Mike Watson

Robin Cooper, the council's director of regeneration, community and culture said;

The Police advised us not to install bins, but we need to review this decision.

I have tweeted @Kent_police for confirmation but at the time of writing I have not received a response as to why they would advise this.

There were further criticisms about the exposed nature, one of the many comments about the exposed nature was from Shelia Purser;

It could have been more covered up. At least in the Pentagon you were dry.

Again Mr Cooper responds:

If people are shopping in the High Street in the rain, they will be getting wet anyway. Those who travel by bus are exposed to the elements, because the bus does not drop them home. The information centre which is heated will be available for shelter... If we need to redesign some aspects of the station we will.

So more expense? There seems to be a serious lack of vision. Yes I accept people get wet and cold waiting for buses however it was sheltered in the Pentagon and similar cover could have been provided.
Other criticisms include the information screens not working (They are now and they are going to get anti glare put on.) No toilets (they are waiting on the water company to finish pressurisation) No Zebra crossings (they had just applied anti skid treatment on the road and the paint would not adhere to it.) - The drivers have also been trained to drive at 10mph - but if you get hit by a bus at 10mph it still hurts and could Kill you!

Councillor Chambers has said that There will be teething problems and I accept there are things that will be overlooked but where you are running six months late it wouldn't have made a difference if they waited a further week to get it right or if they had made sure that the basics were ready for the opening day.

Understandably the other political parties have swooped in to criticise the Conservative administration for presiding over the troubled project.

In a press release on their website Cllr Glyn Griffiths, spokes person for Front line services stated;

Tories have poorly managed this project through out, and have clearly had no foresight at all.

Deputy party leader, the affable and  popular Cllr Vince Maple has been very outspoken about the whole project saying:-

The so called "dynamic bus facility" is just one - albeit very expensive fiasco in a growing list of ineptitude.

He is also quoted in Dan Bloom's article in the Medway Messenger [14-10-11] as saying;

Even though it has had an additional six months, clearly it still isn't finished. The public view is no surprise to me - it has been a very badly run project which doesn't have the confidence of the people of Medway.

Medway Liberal Democrat leader, the indomitable Cllr Geoff Juby was quoted in Max Evan's article in the Medway News [13-10-11]

We can't look back in Medway -we have to look forward in the hope that it's one way to save Chatham. That's what it's all about- saving Chatham as a shopping destination. I'm not sure it will, I hope it will, I hope I'm wrong. I hope investment will come here but all town centres are suspect at the moment.

I tend to agree with Geoff. Yes I am annoyed, like Cllr Maple, at the glaring errors and mismanagement of the whole project by the Conservative administration and I think some serious lessons need to be learned from it and the electorate should remember this in the next local election.

BUT

Medway town centres need regeneration and is in need of a breath of life. The other certainty is that the Pentagon bus station would have to be replaced eventually. Indeed Medway Council have revealed that there are serious plans for regenerating the waterfront, demolishing shops that are there and replacing them with office space, a national chain store (which has shown interest) and the future is looking good.
There is still a concern for the traders in the Pentagon by the public, one person felt that there Sainsbury's and Wilkinsons' would suffer. As predicted in this blog this is a strong possibility and already shop keepers in the Pentagon have already recorded a 30% drop in "On the day sales" for last Monday. However this may just be a blip in the figures that may not be attributed to the bus station, you'll just have to watch the figures over the upcoming months, the new station may be the step that was needed to save Medway's high streets.

So the Step was necessary and worth making however the way it was done so with a serious lack of vision.

Quotes from the Public and Cllr Chambers taken from KM [14-10-11] article by Dan Bloom
Quotes from Robin Cooper from Medway News [13-10-11]