Lincolnshire County Council could take over responsibility for city bus shelters from City of Lincoln Council
The responsibility for city bus shelters could move to a different authority in an effort to bring them up to standard.
Lincolnshire County Council is in discussions with City of Lincoln Council about potentially taking responsibility for its bus shelters across Lincoln.
Although talks are still in the early stages, it's believed the move could bring the city's shelters up to the same standard as those across the rest of the county.
According to a report, the bus shelters were left under the control of the city council when the county council took back responsibility for highway functions many years ago.
City of Lincoln Council has 42 bus shelters of its own, with Adshell currently maintaining an additional 59 sites under a 'zero cost' contract. This agreement allows Adshell to provide and maintain shelters on certain city routes in exchange for using them for advertising.
Under the recommended action to the city council's executive in August, the bus shelter assets would be transferred to Lincolnshire County Council, along with the Adshell contract.
During a Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee on Monday (September 16), when asked about the ownership of bus shelters across the county, Mike Reed, head of transport at LCC, shared further details on the discussions with the CoLC.
He said: "District councils do own some, we own the majority, but we do accept that district councils have real financial difficulties. Proportionally, it's more difficult for districts to maintain the bus shelters to a certain standard.
"It’s something we are very conscious of and we have been talking to some districts about taking on those responsibilities.
"At the moment, for example, we’re talking to the city council about taking on the liability of their bus shelters, which will enable us to hopefully provide better shelters for residents that are more in keeping with the standard we have around the rest of the county."
Cllr Richard Davies (Con), executive member for transport at LCC added: "We're currently talking to CoLC about bus shelters to see what can be done. Hopefully we can all get an agreement over what's going to happen and be able to announce this next step soon."
