Bus shelters across Wellington were labelled ‘grotty’ by former Mayor Cllr Janet Lloyd.

Cllr Lloyd said the town council was interested in taking over the bus shelters in order to improve or replace them. However she said: “We do not know who owns them, we do not know if they will be transfered to us under unitary council and we do not know if we can bid for them now.”

Deputy clerk Annette Kirk said a meeting had been held with Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) to try to learn more about ownership and maintenancne of the shelters.

Ms Kirk said the outcome of the meeting was ‘SWT do not have a budget to replace them and do not have a set maintenance plan in place.’

The town council had commissioned a private survey of Wellington’s bus stops and is due to recieve the findings next week (25th of July) to inform how it moves forward. SWT and town Cllr Keith Wheatley said some of the bus shelters were clearly nearing the end of their working lives and would need replacing.

Cllr Wheatley said: “I was quite shocked when SWT said there was no maintenance budget for them.”

Cllr Marcus Barr, who also represents the town through SWT and the county council, was praised for giving his time voluntarily to clean some of the bus shelters. He said: “I decided to clean one, and then I did another one, and then another and that is how it went. I get up early in the morning and it does not take long to do them.