Doors will be opened to the public for the council meeting to discuss the bus station.
This Thursday’s council meeting at 2pm (February 2nd) will include a discussion of the successful petition which was raised to encourage debate on the future of this iconic and vital public transport facility.
The petition, which was started by John Wilson, easily achieved the required number of signatories surpassing 1,350 in less than 9 weeks even though this included the Christmas period. It would have been undoubtedly easy to collect many times this number of signatures, however it was submitted as soon as possible in order that the council would discuss the issue sooner rather than later.
As well as the petition, the bus station also became the focus of one of the council’s recent “Your City, Your Say” events. As reported by the Lancashire Evening Post, one of these events was even hosted at the bus station where the vast majority of people who could attend wanted the bus station kept where it is.
“Around 200 people attended yesterday’s event and around half of those wanted to talk solely about the bus station.
And according to council representatives, the “vast majority” of those people were in support of keeping the station exactly where it is.” – Lancashire Evening Post, ‘Keep our bus station where it is’
Preston Bus Station is the city's favourite building.
Mr Wilson will be attending the public council meeting where he will be allowed to give a 5 minute presentation on the petition, the goal of which was to prompt the council to conduct a local referendum on the future of the city’s most popular building. With local elections due in May it would seem as though a referendum would not only be convenient for the council to run, but it would also allow them to further the democratic process which led to over 1,350 signing a petition called for that very thing.
A full agenda for the meeting can be found here and there is also an accompanying document dedicated to the discussion of the bus station.
Those wishing to attend the meeting are advised to turn up at Town Hall, conveniently located close to the bus station, prior to the 2pm start time. It would be advisable to aim for 1.30pm. If you make yourself known at reception you will be shown the way to the public gallery.
Keep checking the Facebook page, Twitter feed and this website for further updates.
Picture Credits
Thank you to the following Flickr users, in order of picture appearance, for the Creatve Commons licensing of their pictures:
Johnny English
