Dear Editor,

I wrote to the letters page a year ago regarding the closure of the bus station waiting room and was very disappointed at the lack of response.

I read every week that the local authorities are very keen on making our town a greener place to live and yet there seems to be no encouragement at all to get people out of their cars and onto public transport.

Andover has a population of approximately 50,000 residents and they have a bus station with a very spacious waiting room with all facilities. Basingstoke has a population of 175,000 residents and we have nothing.

Why is this?

This town is expanding at a terrifying rate, building tens of thousands of new houses, which means tens of thousands of additional cars on the roads. Waiting out in the wind, cold and rain throughout the coming winter is hardly going to encourage anyone to leave their car at home and catch the bus.

On the Saturday before last, I entered the bus station to see an elderly gentleman who had collapsed on the hard concrete by a bus stop and was being attended to by paramedics. It is a sad state of affairs when there is nowhere to sit down in the warm and dry if you feel unwell and about to collapse.

It is not just the residents of Basingstoke I feel sorry for. What sort of welcome is this to newcomers and visitors who arrive by train and need to continue their journey by bus?

This situation needs urgent attention and a solution found quickly.

Linda Morris

Foyle Park

Basingstoke