Stop wasting money on new bus shelters

Bus shelters

The furore around the bus shelter in Sheringham seems to have died away but it was raised a number of times at the County Council meeting in December. I asked the following question at the meeting – that the issue at Sheringham hides a bigger issue of wasted public money being spent on new bus shelters around the county that no one asked for:

There’s a big issue that lays behind the problems that have arisen in Sheringham. That’s the keenness to grab hold of any pot of funding that’s going from central government. So we can give the appearance of doing things and so funds can be top sliced for salaries at County Hall. The bus shelter funding doesn’t fund things that would be useful such as digital timetables or better mobile phone connectivity so people can see when the bus is coming. What it does, is undermine public faith in councils by spending vast amounts of money on things that no one asked for and no one really wants. Sheringham isn’t an isolated example. Wouldn’t it be better to respond to these funds by telling the government to stop spaffing tax-payers money on ring fenced funding pots and give councils the freedom and funds to priorities what people actually want?