Threatened Demolition
The building was threatened with demolition as part of the City Council's Tithebarn redevelopment project. Although the Tithebarn development has now collapsed, there are still proposals to demolish the bus station and replace it with a small interchange near the railway station.
In 2000, opposition to the demolition led to a failed application for listed building status by English Heritage. Preston Borough Council (as it was then known) opposed the application.
Putting forward the case for a smaller terminus, a report, commissioned by the council and Grosvenor in 2000, stated that "buses arriving and leaving the bus station have very low bus occupancy rates indicating that passengers alight and board elsewhere in the town centre. The bus station car park similarly suffers from the poor pedestrian linkages." Listing was subsequently rejected.
A survey conducted by the Lancashire Evening Post in May 2010 found that Preston Bus Station was Preston people's favourite building.
A further application to list the bus station was rejected in 2010 and a review of the decision was turned down in 2011. It featured on the 2012 World Monument Fund's list of sites at risk.
In 2012, John Wilson of Fulwood in Preston and a member of the "Save Preston Bus Station" campaign presented a petition of 1435 signatures to Preston City Council calling for a referendum on the future of the bus station and argued that 80% of Preston people surveyed supported keeping the bus station and investing in it. Councillors voted to reject a referendum, with only 1 councillor, Terry Cartwright of Deepdale ward voting in favour.
On 7 December 2012, Preston City Council announced that the bus station would be demolished. They said that it would cost £23m to refurbish it and more than £5m just to keep it standing; although they also conceded that demolition would cost an estimated £1.8m. The Twentieth Century Society, which opposes the scheme, have stated that a fraction of this amount would maintain the building while proposals to retain it were being worked up.
Read more about this topic: Preston Bus Station
Famous quotes containing the word threatened:
“... two great areas of deafness existed in the South: White Southerners had no ears to hear that which threatened their Dream. And colored Southerners had none to hear that which could reduce their anger.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 16 (1962)