Buses have stopped outside Rose Cottage, Whitwell for around 80 years, but in the summer of 2012 the new owner of the property decided she didn’t want buses stopping outside her house any longer.
We’re told her solicitors discovered no-one had ever applied for permission for a bus stop there and demanded its removal. Apparently Southern Vectis agreed and the stop was removed.
Objection from the council
Stuart George from the Bus & Rail Users’ Group told OnTheWight at the time that the Group had discovered advice from the Department for Transport that buses could continue to serve traditional stops and Southern Vectis agreed to reinstate the stop, provided the council had no objection.
Stuart said,
“Surprisingly, the council objected on the grounds that it was unsafe to have a stop where there was no pavement, even though similar situations exist all over the Island, it has never caused problems at this location, and passengers now have to walk about 150yds along a road with no pavements to the next stop.”
Campaign to reinstate bus stop
Since then the IW Bus & Rail Users’ Group have continued to keep pressing both Southern Vectis and the Isle of Wight Council on this issue.
Stuart says that at their latest meeting with Southern Vectis they’d pointed out to that, although route 6 buses to Newport haven’t stopped there since the problem arose, the stop still appears in their timetables.
He went on to say,
“Many months ago, we put forward a solution which we believed would keep everyone happy and would actually improve the situation. They’ve now agreed to implement our suggestion from 15 December.
“From that date route 6 buses from Ventnor to Newport will take a slightly different route so that all route 6 buses through Whitwell will serve Bannock Road first and then the High Street.”
Image: © Google Streetview
