The bus shelter on Church Street

Preston city centre has seen major development works to Fishergate in order to create a ‘shared space’.

It’s part of a scheme called Fishergate Central Gateway project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Growth Deal via the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, and Lancashire County Council investment.

New bus shelters have been implemented as part of the scheme.

The shelters have grey posts, each connected by three glass panels and are accompanied by seating.

Another large, frameless glass panel has been placed at an adjacent angle to the rest of the shelter.

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All panels have white dots imprinted in a line across the centre.

Member of the public, Rick Moore, experienced a leg injury after a collision with one of the shelters across from St John’s Church.

Rick, who is visually impaired, is now working closely with Galloway’s Society for the Blind in Penwortham on Shared Space consultations, campaigning for more visible markers on the shelters.

Rick said: “I am currently working with Galloway’s Society for the Blind in Penwortham regarding the new style bus shelters that have been erected all over Preston city centre. We believe they are dangerous to people with sight loss and also feel that they are causing accidents involved sighted pedestrians.

“The design includes frameless large panels of glass with only small markers on them to make them more visible. I’m looking to hear stories from people, sighted or with a visual impairment, who have experienced problems or accidents as a result of the design.

“I walked into one across from St John’s church near Richer Sounds recently and badly gashed my shin. I am leading a campaign to have more significantly visible markers added to these shelters and am looking for evidence to support that change.”

Director of Community Services at Lancashire County Council, Phil Barrett, said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident and Mr Moore’s injuries. There were delays in responding to Mr Moore and we apologise for the time this took.

“This bus shelter was put in around two years ago, as part of the improvement work in the city centre and it complies with relevant design standards.

“However we are taking this issue seriously and have recently written to Mr Moore to advise him that, taking his previous comments into consideration, we are investigating possible improvements to the bus shelter to reduce the chance of something similar happening again in the future.”

Have you experienced any incidents due to the new style bus shelters? What do you think about them? Let us know in the comments below