When I first came to work in Winchester about fifty years ago, the sign over the entrance to the bus station read WINCHESTER OMNIBUS STATION.

There was a certain ring to the word Omnibus which evoked another time - a time more associated with a Winchester of the past. The name seemed totally appropriate but some time later, this sign was replaced with the sign we have now.   As far as I am aware, Winchester City Council purchased the bus station from Stagecoach in 2017.  Since then The Central Winchester Regeneration scheme has come into being - though it has had many lives - and it seems as though the bus station is going to be sacrificed.

Of course I understand that the Council has a duty to raise money to fund the hundreds of projects needed by the town, and it is inevitable that an area destined for the scrap heap will not be looked after in the interim period - the letters to the Chronicle bear witness to its present neglected state.   Its silly to be sentimental about a bus station but I hate the idea of 'change for change sake' which I think is at play here.  There is nothing the matter with the bus station that a good clean-up and refurbish would not put right; it is ideally situated within walking distance of the Cathedral, the shops and market stalls, and after a long journey tourists need to sit down and relax which would not be possible if the bus stops return to the streets, as is proposed.   Finally, at a time when we are encouraged to reduce the time we spend on the road in our cars, surely it is the wrong time to rid ourselves of our bus station?   So I wonder if anyone else feels as I do, that in an important tourist destination such as Winchester, our lovely, unloved old bus station should have a reprieve?

Rosemary Poole,

St James Villas,

Winchester

 

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