THE leader of Winchester City Council has locked horns with a member of the public over the potential transfer of the city’s bus station to the train station area.

Cllr Martin Tod responded to questions by former city councillor Patrick Davies, who referenced the inclusion of an "opportunity" to transfer the bus station to the Station Approach area.

Mr Davies was also perplexed as to why this had not been mentioned in the council's continued discussions around the plans for the "regeneration" of the area around the station.

He asked: “Why has the Station Approach update process continued without any reference to the council’s decision in its local plan regulation 19 document to move the city centre bus station to the railway station?”

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The concept masterplan for Station Approach, Winchester (Image: Design Engine) Cllr Tod replied that, while there was a reference to the possibility of the bus station moving up the hill to the train station, this is unlikely to materialise. He said: “This seems quite black and white but it is not a statement of council policy. […] It’s a report of what was said by some people at a workshop in 2021.”

Cllr Tod added: “It’s not a practical policy. This is not a change we could make and still be able to have a coherent and reliable bus system.”

However, Mr Davies was not satisfied with this answer and moved on to a more general critique of the Station Approach plans.

He asked: “Doesn’t this whole exercise prove how ill-thought-out the council’s rush to produce this reg 19 documentation [is and that it] has failed the people of this district because it is now very difficult to see how people can respond intelligently to this Station Approach cabinet committee regeneration paper?”

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To this, Cllr Tod replied: “I make absolutely no apology at all for putting forward a positive vision of what it is we’re trying to achieve in the station area and also, and on a separate basis, no apology at all for wanting us to have a coherent, city-wide, properly thought through approach to buses that has been adequately consulted on and takes the needs of the city as a whole when we look at how bus routes and bus infrastructure need to be organised.

“I would stress that it is clear in the document that this is not the transport strategy. […] The thing that makes a bus route successful is where it goes, not where it parks.”

In the past Cllr Tod has cited Brighton as a place without a bus station, but where bus stops are scattered around the city.