A bus shelter in front of the Midland Heights Seventh Day Adventist church on Crawl Hill has been broken for months.

The shelter resembles those found in America and Europe and was brought to the Island in 2004 and put in certain areas to address safety concerns.

People complained that some bus shelters were being used by drug dealers, such as the one on Crawl Hill.

?The (new) shelters provide security, safety and are low maintenance and create the set of specifications we were looking for,? Public Transportation director Dan Simmons said in July, 2004. ?The rationale is about security and cleanliness so people who have to stand in a bus shelter and wait for the bus won?t abandon it because of the stench (of urine) as they stand in the shelter.?

Old limestone shelters were pulled down to make way for the new shelters, which cost $4,000 each. The one on Crawl Hill has been smashed since the summer, two neighbourhood residents said.

One woman waiting for the bus, who did not wish to be named, said it was not a great area and that many young men sold drugs out in the open.

?It was probably those young guys drinking and smoking who smashed it up,? she said ?I don?t know how they did it though, it would take some force. Maybe with a helmet??

A man who was also waiting for a bus, and also wished to remain anonymous, said there was always people selling marijuana down the road but that the ?church people? usually called the Police if they moved too close to the church.

?They probably did it late at night,? he guessed. ?It?s a pain though because no one has cleaned it up or fixed it.?

The lady chimed in that the other day she was stuck in the pouring rain with nothing to protect her.

?I sure got soaked,? she said. ?It would?ve been better if they kept the old ones or fixed this one.?

A Government official did not reply to a request for information about the bus shelter by press time.