PASSENGERS waiting for buses on Church Street could soon be making use of a brand new £30,000 bus shelter if Malvern Town Council gets its way.

The new shelter would replace the current one outside Claremont House as part of an on-going town council programme of improvements to Malvern's bus stops.

The council has approached Malvern Hills District Council to ask it to pay half the cost.

Max Faulkner, owner of Claremont House, which houses the Fernside Gallery and Claremont Pharmacy, has offered the council three feet of land in order for the new stop to be set back from the pavement.

He is asking that, at the same time, a small wall, railings and two gates be erected behind the shelter, designed along similar lines to Claremont House, one of Malvern's earliest buildings.

"This has been on the drawing board now for more than a year, so we have tried to move things on by submitting some plans to the council," said Mr Faulkner.

"We have had positive feedback from the conservation officers, and it will be a massive improvement on the shelter which is there at the moment.

"It's going to be of benefit to everybody. That bus shelter is probably the busiest one in Malvern, and at the moment it looks awful."

Pound Bank will have a new shelter installed in February and plans are being drawn up to change the disused shelter at Link Top into a small walled garden and reinstate a plaque dedicated to fighters in the two World Wars. Another shelter is to be erected next to the new bus lay-by.