BUS company workers were sent packing after trying to install a new shelter on a road with no day time bus service.
Angry residents in New Mill sprang into action when contractors turned up to replace an existing shelter.
The workers employed by West Yorkshire’s public transport regulator Metro arrived in the Holme Valley yesterday morning set on replacing a shelter on Sheffield Road.
The team of four men set up temporary traffic lights as they prepared to remove the existing stop at Mearhouse Corner.
But the crew were soon sent on their way after residents stepped in to halt the new stop plan.
Although a number of buses pass through the centre of New Mill, the section of the A629 south of the village towards Jackson Bridge is only used for early morning, late night and Sunday journeys.
Keith Vale, boss of nearby business Victoria Windows, said he had gone to speak to the workers and had called his local councillor to intervene.
He said: “It’s an absolute waste of public money.
“Buses stopped running up here over a year ago.
“They’d rigged traffic lights up and then a wagon appeared with a bus shelter on the back.
“But the one they were about to demolish is nearly new. It just seems ridiculous in this day and age when there’s a shortage of money and we’re facing a cut in public spending.”
Clr Donald Firth, who lives in the village, said he had sent the crew away.
He said: “I was called out by irate council tax payers, a number of people wanted to know what the hell is going on?
“The bus stop that’s already there is fine, it hasn’t been there long, four or five years at most.
“If you had a bus service it would be fine, but they took it away and now they want to put a new stop up.
“We’ve been trying to get a bus stop in Scholes for three years to keep the rain off people and we can’t get one.
“If you are going to do it, at least put it where it’s needed.”
A spokesman for Metro said the road was on a functioning route used by the 313 bus from Huddersfield to Hepworth.
He said the bus passed Mearhouse Corner twice before 6am and three times in the evening after 6pm and also every two-hours on Sundays.
But maps on Metro’s own website were inconclusive, one showing the bus cutting through Scholes from Holmfirth and another showing it passing down the main road.
The Metro spokesman said the new shelter was part of their Holme Valley- wide agreement to replace stops previously managed by Holme Valley Parish Council.
And he said the work to replace the parish council’s old stops, many of them stone shelters, had been going on for about a year and the money had been sanctioned a long time ago.
He added: “We’ve agreed to put the work on hold subject to further discussion.”
