DARLINGTON residents have renewed their calls for a bus station after a man was hit by a vehicle in the town centre today (Monday, February 16).

The 59-year-old was struck by a bus on Tubwell Row just before noon and suffered chest and back injuries.

His injuries were not believed to be significant but he was taken to Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital as a precaution.

Police closed off Tubwell Row for nearly two hours while they investigated the incident and officers also took to facebook to appeal for witnesses.

They received a barrage of comments from users complaining that the incident was “an accident waiting to happen”.

Many people complained that the number of buses using Tubwell Row and Priestgate, plus the lack of any pedestrian crossings, made it perilous for anybody trying to cross over.

The operation of bus services in the town and the bus station question were briefly raised at a meeting between Arriva management and Darlington Borough Council’s scrutiny committee last week.

Councillor Fred Lawton said residents he spoke to often asked why there was no bus station in the town, adding: “We are told by Arriva that the bus station is a Darlington council issue, while the council tells us there is no need for a bus station because Arriva doesn’t want it. “What is the situation?”

Nick Knox, managing director for Arriva North East told the meeting: “Our worry is that if there was a bus station it would not be in a convenient location for passengers.

“Where the bus stops are now is largely where passengers have told us they want to go.”

In the past Darlington Borough Council has said that the geography of the town would make it difficult to find a location for a bus station that would not involve a long walk for passenegers.