Timetable set for new £3m bus station

Work is expected to start in January on a new bus station in Mary Street, Stanley, which planners hope will open by next October.

Derwentside District Council has put up poster boards in the present bus station and outside the Louisa Centre in Front Street, detailing when each stage of the plan will be completed.

Peter Reynolds, the council's head of environmental services, said: "We have put the notice boards where people are most likely to see them.

"It shows that we haven't just been sat on our thumbs. There has been an awful lot of work going on behind the scenes to prepare this."

Three firms are believed to have put in tenders for the construction of the bus station, the first in the region to be solar powered.

The successful company will be announced in November - the same month Single Program Funding for the project is expected to come through.

Several commercial properties are to be demolished as part of the scheme, in a bid to create a gateway from the new bus station to Front Street, the town's main shopping area. Businesses affected include Bennett's estate agents, William Hill's bookmakers, and Rob Craig's Tattoo Parlour.

Although no deal has yet been agreed over the sale of the buildings, the timetable states that the gateway project should be completed by December 2005.

"The timetable shows the targets we have set out to achieve," said Mr Reynolds.

"If we don't achieve that time scale, for any reason, we will be up front and tell people why."

Detailed plans and images of the new station are expected to be published within weeks.

The project is being part-funded by the sale of the present bus station site, possibly for a major retail development.

The new station will be built on the present Mary Street car park, with the loss of 54 spaces. A road closure order is expected shortly.

The council recently commissioned a study into car parking problems in the town, but the report was received at a meeting behind closed doors.