New Bus Stop Infrastructure Funding

Background

There are approximately 4000 bus stops in Wiltshire, with most being marked by the presence of a flag and pole; at approximately 800 of these bus stops there is also a bus stop shelter.

Particularly in Wiltshire’s rural areas, many bus stops are unmarked, or there is a marked stop one side of the road with a stop available on both sides. A small number of bus stops and shelters are located on roads that belong to National Highways and, in some locations, the shelters are maintained by town or parish councils. In Salisbury there are also a number of shelters (which contain advertising) that are owned/maintained by a third party.

At present Wiltshire Council does not routinely supply and maintain bus stop flags. Some of those in place in the county belong to bus service operators, who have also supplied and installed them, these may have the service details of bus routes supplied by the bus operator.

Until recently there was no formal budget or maintenance programme for Wiltshire Council’s bus stop infrastructure (BSI), other than to make safe or remove when damaged. This has led to a degradation in the quality of BSI over the years and an inconsistent and incomplete BSI asset records held by Wiltshire Council.

There has been limited ‘ad hoc’ funding allocated over previous years to repair or replace BSI, and requests for new BSI have been directed via the Local Highway and Footway Improvement Group (LHFIG), a sub group of each Community Area Board, to be assessed and prioritised alongside other local requests.

Following confirmation of the DfT Bus Grant to Local Transport Authorities 2025 to 2026 allocation it has been possible to commence work to establish a programme of maintenance and improvements to BSI provision across the county, a need identified through Wiltshire Council Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and set out in the Wiltshire Council Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme.

The use of the bus grant funding to commence this programme was approved by Wiltshire’s Enhanced Partnership Board in March 2025 and by the Cabinet Member for Highways, Streetscene and Flooding in July 2025.

The programme of BSI improvements has two key themes, firstly establishing robust asset records and secondly procurement of a supplier to implement identified BSI workstreams.

Establishing a Register of BSI Assets

Bus Stop Shelter Asset and Condition Register: Between November 2024 and April 2025, a condition survey was undertaken based on previous bus stop shelter location records. The condition surveys indicates that around half of the shelters are in a generally acceptable condition with the other half requiring maintenance and repair. At time of survey if any safety critical defects were found these are in the process of being made safe.

Bus Stop Shelter Ownership: The next stage is for the ownership/maintenance responsibility for each bus stop shelter to be confirmed. This will entail liaison with town and parish councils to identify the number of shelters they own and/or maintain. Based on previous records it is currently estimated around 60% of bus shelters belong to Wiltshire Council, 32% Parish Councils, 7% Town Councils and approximately 1% belong to others, such as the MOD.

Other BSI Condition and Ownership: Where a bus stop does not appear on the bus stop shelter asset register there may be other infrastructure (e.g. flag, pole and timetable case) that requires maintenance or is missing entirely. At present approximately 300 bus stops are recorded as requiring remedial works, however it is anticipated the actual number of bus stops needing maintenance and repair is a lot higher.

Procurement of BSI Supply, Installation and Maintenance

We have commenced work to allow a procurement process to enable implementation of the work detailed above . The timescales for this procurement, at the time of writing, are set out in the table below.

Existing and New Reports and Requests for BSI

From the survey work to date, we already have accumulated a high volume of identified bus stop improvements. We will review new requests/reports received through this programme and, if accepted, they will be added to our database, then prioritised and programmed in accordance with the Wiltshire BSIP.

BSI reports and requests should be submitted via the dedicated mailbox for this programme: - Bus.Stops@wiltshire.gov.uk. This supersedes the previous process for local BSI requests, via the LHFIG, and outstanding LHFIG BSI requests will be reviewed under the new process.

Until the procurement process is concluded in Spring 2026, we are unable to progress any requests at this time, other than those reports with safety implications which will be addressed and made safe in the short term.

It is anticipated also that, for some reports/requests made through this programme there will be a need for additional design and engineering works to ensure safety and accessibility is included for the bus stop, and so these projects will require a longer timescale to address than others through the programme.