Long-serving Portslade councillor can retire happy after winning bus shelter battle

A long-serving councillor said he can retire happy after winning his lengthy battle for a bus shelter.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Bob Carden, who has represented North Portslade since 1991, has been asking for a shelter to be installed at the junction of New England Rise and Thornhill Rise for years.

With the long-serving Labour councillor due to step at the next election in May 2015, he made one final plea to officials claiming he received more phone calls about it than “anything else in the city”.

Coun Carden has now received a letter from the council saying that the shelter will be installed in the coming months.

Coun Carden told The Latest: “I’m extremely happy for the local residents. They won’t have to walk half a mile now to the nearest bus shorter.

“Lots of people have been on at me for ages to get it sorted. I can retire reasonably happy now.”

Coun Carden raised the issue at a council meeting in December.

He told fellow councillors: “I get more phone calls about that bus shelter than anything else in the city.

“I’m fed up with trying and getting the same old rubbish answers that we have no money, we can’t do it etc.”

He asked fellow councillors to “please do it and I’ll retire happy”.

At the time, Pete West, chairman of the council’s environment and transport committee, said: “My understanding is that actually it’s too narrow in that location to have a shelter without it compromising pedestrian access, which may force disabled people to go into the road.

“It isn’t a particularly heavily-used bus stop and along with ensuring a safe location we also have to make sure they are put in areas where they are more heavily used, so providing more benefit to the greatest number of people.”

However, the change of heart will no doubt go down well in the north-west corner of the city.