About 135 of these plastic benches will be removed in favour of more aesthetically pleasing and functional metal benches.

(MIKE MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - After just five years of use, the City of Kamloops is scrapping the poorly designed plastic bus benches that have been a source of complaints from residents.

Coun. Donovan Cavers led the push to get new bus benches after hearing from the public the current models don't drain water properly and people end up sitting in puddles of water.

Cavers says the benches are a hollow plastic design with rippling on the seat that was intended to drain water, but it didn't work.

"I think the idea was the water would settle out and people's butts wouldn't get wet, but wasn't really happening," he says. "And there were depressions where people were sitting so the water would pool on them so that was one of the main issues. They also just didn't look very nice."

The new benches the city is buying are metal and more functional, he says.

"They have a black paint on them that's heat treated so they don't get too hot in the summer time. They're also more of a metal slat design so they will allow rain and snow to go through them a lot easier and they won't pool with water."

Cavers says he and his fellow councillors agreed the plastic benches have been an eyesore and the new benches will be much more esthetically pleasing.

There are about 135 of the benches in the city and the changeover to the new models will begin immediately.

The shelters that cover the benches are just as much an issue and an eyesore according to Cavers, but the contract for those doesn't run out for ten years.

The new benches won't cost the city because the company that installs them does so for free because it makes money from the advertising revenue.

The vote to bring in the new benches was passed five votes to one. Dennis Walsh was the lone councillor who did not support the move.

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