Station scheme shelved (From Stroud News and Journal)

Station scheme shelved

PUBLIC transport advocates are outraged that Stroud's long-awaited bus and rail interchange has been cut from the district council's annual budget.

The project - which would create a state-of-the-art terminus at Stroud railway station - has been under discussion for eight years.

It was to be largely funded by private companies, with Stroud taxpayers footing around £1.6 million of the bill.

But the Conservative cabinet at Stroud District Council has not allocated funds for the scheme in the newly-released 2006/07 budget, saying it believes no progress will be made on it during the next year.

Cllr Linda Townley (Ind, Uplands) said the project is vital if congestion is to be reduced and tourists catered for.

"Bus users in Stroud are being left in limbo," she said.

"With the canal project we are going to see an increase in tourism. "We have to have proper facilities to cater for that.

"If we want to get people off the roads we need to give them an incentive. "The attitude seems to be that people in Stroud have got a cinema so they should shut up and not complain about anything else.

"But it's not just about leisure, it's about people being able to get to work. "There comes a time when a decision has to be made."

However, council leader Chas Fellows (Con, Chalford) insisted the interchange would eventually be built.

"It's not dead and buried," he said.

"The difficulty is that there are a number of landowners involved and they are finding it hard to come to a consensus about how to do it.

"Meetings do take place periodically.

"But it's not going to happen in the next year or so, so why put it in the budget?"