Bedford bus station plans unveiled

Bedford’s decades-long wait for a new, improved bus station is nearly over, with a planning application for a major regeneration of the site now submitted. The area has long been considered an eyesore in severe need of improvement and regeneration.

Now the authority has put together an £8.8 million fund to ensure the development will take place.

The project has been designed in partnership with bus station owners Stagecoach, and includes a new building with improved facilities for passengers and a new Travel Centre.

Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson, said: “Bedford bus station area lets our town centre down and has been in sore need of improvement for decades.

In addition to the new bus station and Travel and Tourism centre, the wider bus station regeneration also includes:

• Refurbishment of Allhallows multi-storey car park. Includes major modernisation of the public toilets with improved disabled and baby change facilities.

• New shopfronts, including new windows and doors which will improve the appearance and disabled access to shops in Greenhill Street, below the car park.• Construction of new surface car park on Greyfriars

• Improvements on the north side of the bus station area, in front of the car park, with new paving, seating and other features.

If planning permission is approved, the Council and Stagecoach will invite tenders to build the project later this year.