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Castletown bus stop FOI rejected by government

Sat, 22 Dec 2018

Castletown Commissioners have been thwarted in their quest to get answers from the Department of Infrastructure on changes to bus stops in the Parade.

A freedom of information request by the local authority had asked for copies of internal correspondence between the Highway Service and Bus Vannin on their proposed scheme.

The DOI wants to redesign the two bus shelters to include a ‘built out’ design with realigned kerbs allowing the buses to pull up parallel to the pavement.

Castletown Commissioners’ request was rejected by the department.

It was hoped the information could’ve helped the board consider the department’s proposals – it’s requested an internal review of the response.

The authority’s clerk Hugo Mackenzie says the commissioners are ‘becoming increasingly concerned at the lack of transparency within the DOI’.

He says the scheme has little local support, so to prevent the board from finding out more is disappointing and suggests a lack of evidence to justify proposals.

An informal request by the commissioners to departmental member and local MHK Jason Moorhouse for data on bus stop use in the town was also refused, due to it being ‘commercially sensitive’ in nature.

Mr Mackenzie says ‘the department should engage with local authorities to ensure a coordinated approach is taken to transport issues outside of Douglas in contrast to the dictatorial stance that prevails’.

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