Bus shelter attacks cost £500k a year
Ten bus shelters inthe West Midlands are vandalised every day, costing taxpayers £500,000 a year to repair, new figures out today show. Centro has revealed that 95 shelters were vandalised during a 10-day rampage over Christmas.
Ten bus shelters inthe West Midlands are vandalised every day, costing taxpayers £500,000 a year to repair, new figures out today show. Centro has revealed that 95 shelters were vandalised during a 10-day rampage over Christmas.
The transport authority is having to fork out for between seven and 10 panes of glass every day as a result of repeated attacks, at a cost of £25 a pane. Bosses have a policy of clearing and replacing all smashed glass within 48 hours. Locations of the vandalised shelters are not revealed.
Known hotspots are targeted by police, who do not want to tip the culprits off that they are being watched.
The Safer Travel Police Team is a dedicated group of 30 police officers and police community support officers working with bus company Travel West Midlands, Birm- ingham Community Safety Partnership and Centro.
Centro media manager Steve Swingler said today: "Normally broken glass is repaired within 48 hours.
"It costs £25 to replace the safety glass, which is designed to shatter rather than splinter, but if we were to use tougher polycarbonate it would cost £70 and would not have the same appearance. It is also harder for people standing at the stop to see through."We do consider polycarbonate in areas which are repeatedly attacked. Centro has 5,000 shelters across the region and 120 of them have polycarbonate.
"It is a shame that a mindless minority are causing this problem which is still costing £500,000 a year."
He added that CCTV had been installed in a number of shelters.
Labour councillor Phil Bateman, who represents Wednesfield North in Wolverhampton, said shelters in Lichfield Road and Griffiths Drive, Wednesfield, had been hit over Christmas.
He said: "December has been a pretty awful month, not just for damage to bus shelters but for criminal dam- age across the community."
Councillor Neville Patten, Conservative transport spokesman for Wolverhampton, said glass in shelters along Stafford Road between the M54 and Three Tuns island had also been smashed recently.
