BUS users, pensioners and politicians of all colours have united to call on Colchester Council to keep a bus station in the town centre.

Lyn Barton, portfolio holder for regeneration, has revealed attempts by the coalition cabinet to find an alternative home for the Queen Street bus station have foundered.

It is due to close in 2012.

Instead, a series of four “super stops”, including two that will have facilities such as ticket offices, are being proposed – a scheme which has already come under fire.

Barbara Williamson, chairman of the Colchester Pensioners’ Action Group, said many people changed buses at the station.

She said: “What seems to be difficult for people to grasp is we want a bus station and somewhere to go to get to a different place.

“We don’t just use buses to go into town. They have got to overcome that problem.

“My preferred option would be to have a transport terminal where you could get on a train, bus or coach either at Colchester Town Station or Colchester North Station.”

As part of a land deal signed when the Visual Arts Facility was inaugurated, a temporary bus facility was allowed to remain off Queen Street, where the main one had stood since 1961.

The land is due to pass to Essex County Council on December 31, 2012, but Labour backbencher Dave Harris said he understood the agreement to keep the temporary bus station could be extended.

He said: “I’m appalled.

“I need, and the people of Colchester need, to know they are going to have a bus station after the temporary one closes.”

Last year, the Gazette revealed a planned replacement bus station in the forthcoming Vineyard Gate development would not go ahead.

Now the council has said the bus station will not be replaced when the land is handed to Essex County Council.

Mrs Barton, a member of the Labour, Lib Dem and independent coalition cabinet, said: “We have explored all avenues to try to retain a bus station in the town and there just is not a piece of land that is suitable.

“Colchester town centre is very compact.

“The idea is to have these 21st century facilities that would more or less offer the same amenities as the current one we have.”

“We’re still having negotiations with people as to how we could provide coffee facilities, toilets, ticket offices and things like that.”