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Bus Shelter Faults on Dereham Road fall between the cracks...

Wensum ward Green Party Councillor Ruth Makoff has been working with local residents to get repairs carried out on broken electronic timetable displays in several bus shelters on Dereham Road. One fault – on the shelter by Marlpit – has now been repaired after two months of being out of action. Green Councillors believe that the unnecessary delays to the repairs are caused by the work having been contracted out to a private company and they are calling for the work to be brought back under the control of the council when the contract ends in 2011. The fault on the bus shelter in Marlpit that got repaired was a blown fuse that took only 10 minutes to fix, and yet it took two months for the Council to sort out who was responsible and get the problem fixed!
This kind of basic thing would be much easier to get right if Norwich had a unitary Council -- so that it was always clear who was responsible for fixing the problem -- and if Council services were brought back 'in-house' rather than some of them being dealt with in an 'outsourced' way by private companies. The Greens are pressing for a unitary Norwich and for the 'unprivatisation' of CityCare, to stop this sort of silly problem re-occuring in future!

Comments

Unknown said…
I entirely agree with your comments here! It is not only the bus shelter at Marlpit but nearer the city - until recently the one between Grant Street and Hotblack Road was out of action.
It is extremely frustrating and time-consuming for travellers, who have to be in the city by a certain time, to not have the timetable with them. I do not see why we have to pay for texting the times (it is very awkward when holdings bags and, maybe, an umbrella to do so).

Many shelters have inadequate seating - especially the one in Theatre Street. People tend to catch the bus if they are tired - we do not wish to stand for long periods if we are tired and may have heavy shopping with us. There is no electronic timetable there - only timetables for First -the most expensive, overcrowded and scruffy service available in the city but not for Konectbus who are better value for money.
12 September 2008 at 20:13
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