A SALISBURY resident has called for action over new bus shelters which he says are “absolute rubbish” and “not-fit-for-purpose”.

David Brown raised concerns during a meeting of Salisbury Area Board on March 28 about the shelters in Coronation Road, Devizes Road, Balmoral Road, Bishopdown Road and Herbert Road.

He said: “They are absolute rubbish and are not fit-for-purpose. What is going to be done about them? Are you going to go back to the manufacturers and see if you can do a deal to swap them for some proper ones, some better ones or are you just going to leave them there? Or are you going to try and modify them so they do protect people sheltering from the rain.”

The project was first approved at a Salisbury Area Board meeting in July, when £10,958 was allocated by Wiltshire Council to replace the existing shelters.

Councillor Sven Hocking said: “We were limited by budget to what we could do. The original request to replace those five shelters the costings were somewhere in the region of £60,000 to £70,000 to replace five bus shelters. We obviously didn’t have that much money.

“The ones that we have got, the perspex I grant you is a bit flimsy on the front so we might look at doing something about that a bit later on. Physical size wise they were replaced on a like for like basis so I’m told, same width, same height.”

Mr Brown said the new shelters were “not physically the same” and there was a gap which meant people were getting wet. He said: “The best thing really is to bring your umbrella and sit under the bus shelter with your umbrella up to guard against getting wet. You need to do something please.

“You have wasted a lot of money.”

Cllr Hocking said this had been noted and he would see if something could be done.

The meeting also heard the scheme to revamp street name plates had gone “spectacularly well” and over summer more work was going to be done in St Francis and St Edmund’s and Milford with Harnham and Bishopdown being done next year.

The area board agreed to allocate a further £3,401.39 for street name plate repainting and £4,326 to bus shelter works in Devizes Road.