A passenger who regularly travels through Swindon bus station has said the decision not to run services at night is contributing to the decline of the town centre.

Earlier this month, the Advertiser reported that Swindon Bus Company had confirmed it would not be dropping off or collecting passengers after 7pm from the bus station.

This was following an increase in reports of people, especially lone women, being harassed, threatened and made to feel unsafe.

Swindon Bus Company said the measures would be “temporary” until the Fleming Way project was completed, but this galvanised people to share their own concerns about the bus station at night.

One comment read: “The place is threatening and dangerous to the people of Swindon at the best of times and after sundown, it’s worse.”

While another person said: “A scary place the bus station, even for a male on his own.”

READ MORE: Swindon's Bus Company stops using bus station after 7pm

David Hemming, who is in his 60s, has lived in Swindon his whole life and often travels from Walcot to socialise in town.

His usual bus has been diverted in the evenings and the nearest stop is at Spring Gardens, nearly a 10 minute walk away, and he is worried that disabled people will face greater challenges with the lack of accessibility in the town centre.  

Mr Hemming said: “It’s crackers they haven’t thought of anything and it will kill the town centre. How can they keep shops alive if people can’t go shopping as they can’t get to town easily?

“People can’t afford a taxi home and they need the option of the bus. A lot of people were in town for the football and I go down there to watch the game and play skittles, but it’s got to a point now where I won’t use the buses.

Swindon Bus Station  (Image: Newsquest) “Luckily I can walk into town and back, but they are expecting people with walking sticks or those pushing people in wheelchairs to go all the way around.

“I bet a lot of people will think it’s madness. All it will do is make the pubs and places around town deserted at night.

"People will decide to go out earlier as they know they can use the bus station to get home, but it will affect local businesses.

READ MORE: Swindon bus station toilets 'stop people from visiting town'

“I’m surprised they haven’t got security cameras or more community police officers down there to sort this chaos.

"The council has already delayed this bus boulevard and I expect it will just put the buses back where they were originally. The sooner all these bus things get sorted out, the better.”

Wiltshire Police area inspector David Tippetts said: “On the whole that area is safe but if you don’t feel safe due to the behaviour of someone else or someone approaches you, then call us and we’ll dispatch units to deal with it, be that on 999 or 101.

“If a female is being approached by someone then that is a 999 call.

“It’s not just the bus station, it’s the area behind it too. We are able to track down CCTV, so we urge people to call us. That way we know what the issue is, the times and dates, and it’s far easier to organise our staff and patrols.

“It’s absolutely the sort of thing we want to know about because we want people to feel safe wherever they are in Swindon and we take reports very seriously.

“The bus station is a priority area for us due to the reports of anti-social behaviour that we’re getting, so we’re putting in extra patrols as and when we’re able to and working with partners to see what we can do when we have repeat offenders."