by Molly Kerrige
Bus shelters across Leicester are set to have a transformation to make them more environmentally friendly, as part of the City Council’s hope to become carbon neutral by 2030.
The council is working in partnership with Clear Channel UK, a leading out-of-home advertising and infrastructure company to remake and manage the bus shelters across the city.
They are working to a 10-year contract to revamp the city’s 479 bus shelters, with Clear Channel UK investing millions to overhaul every shelter in Leicester over the coming two years.
The aim is to replace every shelter with a new modern structure, made entirely from recyclable materials, and to install solar panels wherever possible, to reduce the cost of managing them.
As well as this, approximately 30 bus shelters in the city centre will have a ‘living roof’, planted with a mix of wildflowers to support the ecosystem for creatures such as bees and other pollinating insects.
The idea of a connection of ‘living roof’ bus shelters across the city is a first for the UK, and is just one of the steps in Leicester’s response to the climate emergency.
Deputy city mayor Cllr Adam Clarke, who leads on environment and transportation, said: “The citywide revamp of our bus shelters will bring huge benefits to Leicester.
“The new, modern shelters will be great for passengers and the mix of solar power and living roofs will be a major step forward for our efforts to become a carbon neutral and climate adapted city over the next ten years.
“It will be a perfect complement to our work to deliver a new carbon neutral bus station at St Margaret’s.
“I’m really pleased that we have found a partner like Clear Channel that clearly shares our environmental ambitions.
City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, said: “Whilst there isn’t a great deal that people can do to support the installation, we want to protect our new shelters from all forms of vandalism and encourage any incidences of damage or graffiti to be reported to busstopinfo@leicester.gov.uk.
“Most importantly, we encourage city residents to use sustainable transport, whether that be by bus, train, cycling, walking or any other sustainable means.~
There are also a number of other transport related initiatives as part of the city council’s aim to be carbon neutral by 2030:
- Significant improvements are being made to St Margaret’s bus station, which is expected to become the first carbon neutral bus station in the country.
- They have retrofitted a number of buses to Euro VI standard, and will continue to do this.
- They have designated our city bus stations as Low Emission Zones
- They have purchased electric buses for our park and ride services which we expect to take delivery of in January.
For more information on the City Council’s plan to become a carbon neutral city by 2030, you can visit the council website at Leicester.gov.uk.
