(20 May 2015, 10:09 pm)Malarkey wrote Details about the New Bus Station for Hexham, bloody need it as the Buses cant even do a U-Turn to get around and out from what I seen today.

I have used Hexham bus station since the early 1950s and there used to be a turntable at the top (back) of the site - it was removed as being unnecessary
I realise that buses are larger (wider as well as longer) than they were in the 1940s and 1950s, however, there are drivers, and the there are drivers, some of whom can manage the U-turn without shunting.
It is a travesty that the derelict adjacent site (which was George and Joblings Ford garage, and which burned down in the late 1950s/early 1960s - I was there that night, though as a spectator and I was not the perpetrator) was allowed to remain derelict without being acquired for future expansion of the bus station as services grew. The extra space would have allowed space for layovers and parking for spare vehicles.

The developer is only interested in maximising their gain.
Northumberland County Council are only interested in selling the site to finance the savings demanded by County Hall - the alternative site at Loosing Hill is already owned by NCC and the sale to the developer of the current bus station site is worth several million GBP.

The additional retail units proposed for the development of the current bus station site will not help the ailing Robbs/Beales store opposite which had to be bailed-out by NCC to the tune of several hundred GBP.

In addition, the loss of the parking spaces for cars at the Loosing Hill site will exacerbate the chaos that was inflicted on Hexham by the abolition of parking charges - the Wentworth carpark is full with all-day parkers by 09:30 leaving no spaces for visitors and would-be shoppers are avoiding Hexham and seeking other towns.

I may not live long enough to see the foolishness of this fiasco.