3 Comments

1. 

   Andrew Lye

   July 28, 2016 at 1:29 pm

   Well done Lorraine, for taking up the issue and getting a replacement arranged, Maybe if it hadnt been for the campaign, there would have been no shelter at all as its easy to remove any facility if its vandalised. It annoyed me, for example, that public toilets were closed due to vandalism. Those idiots are spoiling it for the rest of us and as we are in austerity, maybe PCC thought they could get away with removing the vandalised bus shelter. Lorraine is to be commended for fighting back. Lorraine should be on the Council.
2. 

   Mikey J

   August 1, 2016 at 9:42 am

   “which then left the bus shelter open to further acts of vandalism”? How does not replacing the clear sheeting leave the shelter open to further acts of vandalism? I understand that slating the council is a popular blaming choice but missing perspex would not leave the shelter open to more vandalism.

   Old block shelters were taken down and replaced with these new shelters with the idea it would reduce vandalism as whatever damage would be done to them would be seen by the public rather than as previously done hidden behind block walls. The fact that this shelter has been damaged multiple times show that the very tiny percentage who are vandalising the shelter don’t care if they are seen and the vandalism will happen again.

   If the town council want to get this new shelter installed and not paying the constant almost certain costs repairing the damage done by the idiocy of the tiny percentage of local residents vandalising the shelter multiple times then why don’t the town council fund CCTV cameras as a deterrent? At least that way when it gets vandalised again there would be proof of who did the damage therefore saving them money. Just a thought.
3. 

   Lorraine Turner

   August 18, 2016 at 6:24 pm

   I’ve only just seen this article! Thank you for the publicity, and it’s fantastic news that the shelter WILL be replaced AND maintained by Pembrokeshire County Council. I had been trying to get the old shelter repaired for well over a year (with the help of Councillor Stephen Joseph), and I think it very telling that it took a public campaign of barely four weeks to resolve the situation. What really caused me concern, was that questions of how much the shelter was being used, and how much replacing a panel of perspex actually costed, were only being asked as a result of this petition…LONG after the original decision had been rubber-stamped. I’m afraid the responsibility does indeed rest with the councillors, who control any funding for maintaining the fabric of our towns, together with associated services. If the people trusted to make these decisions are out of touch with people’s needs, they at least have a duty of care to FIND OUT before voting on actions that will have such long-term consequences.
   And thank you, Andrew, for your kind words, but I really wouldn’t want that job, as I can appreciate that councillors also have their efforts and hard work frustrated by the system much of the time. From what I’ve seen of the local Town Council meetings, it is antiquated to say the least.
   On a final note: I heard an anecdotal story of parents who sued a County Council (not far from here), after their son was injured by a rebounding rock he had thrown at a bus shelter. It bounced back off the perspex panel, and hit him on the head. They didn’t succeed in their claim, but the fact that perspex can be fitted which cannot be vandalised is a given. Just like the CCTV camera at the end of Charles Street which faces the bus shelter.