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| Dalton Square was used as a temporary terminus after the floods in 2015 |
In recent years Dalton Square has been used as a bus terminus twice. In 2013 during the United Utilities works that closed half the bus station and again two years later following Storm Desmond and the subsequent flooding that closed it completely.
So when Lancashire County Council decided it wanted to close Common Garden Street overnight on April 24th/25th it seemed a no-brainer that the square could be brought back into use as an alternative. Despite there having been no regular services calling there, the three bus stop poles and timetable cases were already in place, making it easy for drivers and passengers to use.
Imagine our surprise, therefore, when we were told that the County Council "would not allow" Stagecoach to use these stops during the closure and just to make sure that it didn't, the bus stops and timetable cases would be removed (although the poles remain!). Nor would the county council consider allowing a temporary stop to be placed on Thurnham Street, leaving passengers from Common Garden Street (and George Street) no alternative but to walk to either the Infirmary or the Bus Station to get their bus.
Stagecoach seems to have gone along with this, but to the Bus Users' Group the move raised certain questions. Dalton Square is public highway and there are no restrictions on the number, size or type of vehicles that can use it. The Square would only have been used as a stop for picking-up passengers and not for layover so it appeared to us that an important principle was at stake.
A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council, clearly with no historical knowledge, said:
Dalton Square was never originally made for bus use and this has previously been notified to Stagecoach officer. Lancashire County Council would not support this arrangement moving forward.
Maybe Dalton Square wasn't intended for use by buses, but it certainly has history. Bus services between Lancaster and surrounding towns and villages began after the First World War and in 1921 Dalton Square was designated as their official terminus (City services used Market Square). By 1928 so many buses were using the Square that it was deemed to be "full" and any new routes were allocated to Damside Street. Dalton Square was used as a terminus until a bus station was opened on the site of the present one in 1939 and services to Preston and Blackpool continued to use it as a calling point until the 1980s.
The County Council also claims that the use of the Square by buses would "deform and damage the historic road surface" and that even the small number of buses that would have used the stop during the late evening in University holidays could not be allowed.
However, the Council's spokesperson also gave another reason for preventing buses from using the square, claiming that in order for them to do so safely the car parking bays nearby would have to be taken out of use. And there we have it: the BUG strongly suspects that this is the real reason why buses were not allowed to use the Square. The inconvenience to a handful of car drivers is clearly much more important to the Council that that of a much larger number of bus passengers.
Or at least that was what we thought - until we saw this:
Yes! That's right - a bus from Dalton Square EVERY 30 MINUTES for THREE WHOLE DAYS!
Apparently, it's just fine for the Lancaster Food Festival to organise a free bus service for their customers and to use Dalton Square as a pick-up point! Is it perhaps that Food Festival customers are somehow more important than mere ordinary bus passengers (and maybe on a par with those pampered car drivers ) or is it just that with Dalton Square being public highway nobody thought they needed to ask permission?
And in the meantime and at the time of writing Dalton Square's "historic road surface" appears remarkably un-deformed and undamaged!