Wrexham Bus Station Could Soon Be Managed by ‘External Provider’

The day to day management of Wrexham Bus Station could soon be handled by an external providers – with councillors backing plans to begin a procurement exercise for the facility.

Last week Wrexham.com reported that Wrexham Council were looking to find an external provider to undertake the general day to day management of the operations section of the bus station.

Some of the reasons listed for the proposed management transfer included improving the quality of the service provided – having a better security presence and the potential reopening of the Information Shop, which has been closed for the past two years.

Yesterday members of the Executive Board unanimously backed plans to undertake a procurement exercise to transfer the management of the bus operations section of Wrexham Bus Station to an external provider.

This will be the second time Wrexham Council have looked for an external provider to manage Wrexham Bus Station – with no expressions of interest during a procurement exercise in 2011.

Speaking at the Executive Board, Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for the Environment and Transport, noted that the ‘move is designed to improve quality and provision of the bus and travel information provided at Wrexham Bus Station and provide a more safe and pleasant environment for the public to travel’.

He added: “Just to outline why we are doing this – there has been some concern of anti-social behaviour at bus station and also it’s to improve the appearance and improve the passenger experience. Although Wrexham Council own the bus station, we don’t operate buses, which are all commercially operated. It’s not one of our core functions as a Council.

Welcoming the report Cllr Alun Jenkins noted that he wishes the council every success with this exercise second time around. However referencing anti social behaviour he added: “The place looks very untidy, but I want to pick up on one thing which is criticised by the public. One of first places people go to when they travel into Wrexham on the bus – is that they want to go to the loo and they can’t as it’s closed at 5:30.

“It is imperative that has to be part of any contract, that they are open well into the evening and disabled toilets as well. I know we have problems with antisocial behaviour and that’s part of the issue with access. You can only have access to disabled toilets if there is a caretaker.

“The toilet facility isn’t adequate and gives Wrexham a bad impression when people arrive.”

Cllr Bithell said: “I have nothing further to add other than to take on board. We did try this in 2011 when I was lead member, but there were no expressions of interest at that time. The reason was we employed staff at the bus station, we don’t know – hopefully shouldn’t be the case.”

He added: “There are a number of people interested in taking over the running, but that will be down to the formal process of the procurement exercise.”