A POLL has shown strong opposition to the loss of a bus station in the Silver Hill scheme in Winchester.

More than 600 people voted in the online ballot on the Hampshire Chronicle website with more than 80 per cent opposed to its removal.

In total 524 votes or 82 per cent were against with 116, or 18 per cent, in favour.

The survey was on the Chronicle website for three weeks up to Friday July 25.

The plan for a bus station has been dropped by developer Henderson in new proposals because Stagecoach says it does not want to operate one.

Instead buses will stop along Friarsgate and The Broadway. There will be a ticket office, seating and toilets.

Critics say little thought has been given to the bus station as an interchange with many travellers, including the elderly, disabled and parents with babies, having to walk 100m between Friarsgate and The Broadway to catch a connection.

Bus user and campaigner David Selby, of West Hill Road North, South Wonston, said: “The excellent survey conducted by the Chronicle has demonstrated overwhelmingly that Winchester still needs a bus station. It is quite likely that the architects of the Silver Hill development do not travel regularly by bus, if at all, and I daresay that this also applies to most of Winchester city councillors, and possibly the officers.”

The city council’s new glossy booklet on Silver Hill said: “The contemporary preference is for buses to be located on the street, maximising footfall, improving accessibility and street activity.”

See the new survey on the proposed diversion of Andover Road through the Barton Farm development.