MONEY for new bus shelters has been welcomed in the wake of more services being lost.

Blackburn with Darwen Council is planning to spend almost £290,000 on shelters across the borough over the next three years.

The cash forms part of the council’s 2018/19 - 2020/21 capital programme for transport and highways, which is funded by a combination of Department for Transport grants, Growth Deal cash and Section 106 contributions from housing developers.

Speaking at a local authority executive board meeting, Cllr Maureen Bateson said: “I appreciate the money for quality bus shelters. They are going to be needed given public transport is decreasing.

“I appreciate the council’s position that we can’t subsidise public transport because of government cuts.

“It is not just a Blackburn with Darwen problem, it is a national problem.”

“The amount of services that have been lost is huge and for many people it cuts out an important part of their life.”

The cash will be used to replace older shelters and the remaining stock the council inherited from Clear Channel.

The detailed programme approved for 2018/19 includes two new shelters on Exchange Street, Whalley New Road upgrades and Pleckgate Road.

Stops and boarders will be upgraded to accessibility act standards and the council will expand advertising.

Income from advertising is reinvested in bus stop maintenance and cleaning, and also the provision of printed timetable information and public transport co-ordination in the borough.

In addition, there will be a trial of e-paper timetabling on the upgraded stops at the side of the Town Hall.

Cllr Phil Riley said: “In very simple terms, since bus route deregulation it has absolutely plummeted all over the country. The story in Blackburn with Darwen is the same in all the big cities.”

Cllr Riley said the only place which had not seen a reduction in bus services was London, where routes had not been deregulated.

Earlier this month, the Lancashire Telegraph reported several bus routes are being changed in a move which could cause disruption to commuters.

Services operated by Transdev, The Blackburn Bus Company and Rosso will be subject to changes, including the popular X41 route which runs from Blackburn-Manchester.

Route number 24, operated by Transdev subsidiary, The Blackburn Bus Company, will be merged with the number four route, creating one route that runs every 20 minutes between Blackburn and Green Lane through Mill Hill.

Two buses an hour will then run on to Leyburn Road and one bus an hour will continue to Feniscowles and Chorley. Other routes run by the company including the number one from Darwen to Bolton will also see alterations to timetables.

Rosso, another company owned by Transdev, will also see changes with the 244 Blackburn-Haslingden-Rawtenstall route being renumbered as the 481.

The route, between Blackburn and Rawtenstall via Royal Blackburn Hospital, will be extended to Bury.

Members approved the Local Transport Plan 3 detailed spending programme for 2018/19, as well as outline plans for 2019/20 and 2020/21.

The total transport capital programme for 2018/19 comes to more than £10 million.

Almost £600,000 is to be spent on bridges and structure maintenance, while money for repairing potholes across the borough is yet to be confirmed.

Cllr Riley added: “It is a reasonable sum of money and some of it reflects well on the officers who have managed to win some of these grants.”