Swindon Borough Council is proposing to move a bus stop on Victoria Road in Old Town, after concluding its current spot on a tight S-bend is causing repeated conflict between buses and other traffic. The stop would relocate to a new position between Dumbarton Terrace and Hunt Street.

In a letter to residents, the council's traffic management and road safety team said the existing position is not ideal and that locals have asked for the stop to be moved further down for easier access from Hunt Street. Bus drivers have reported difficulty pulling away from the stop on the steep hill, made worse by cars parking along the narrow road. The plan would revoke part of the 'no waiting at any time' restriction and introduce a bus-stop clearway at the new site, with temporary parking rules while the move takes place. It follows a similar relocation from St Helens View to Okus Road earlier in October. The council is now collating feedback before deciding whether to proceed to formal consultation.

It is understood the stop's behaviour has been a cause for concern for some time: refusing to let buses leave without an argument, encouraging cars to park where they shouldn't, and generally giving Victoria Road a reputation it hasn't asked for. Officials stress the move is not a punishment, more a change of scenery, though residents nearer Hunt Street have been warned to expect a slightly sulky queue of passengers for the first few weeks.

Brenda Pask, 72, of Old Town, who has lived there since before it was old, said she had caught the bus from that stop for forty years and never once needed a clearway, because in her day a driver simply leaned on the horn until the parked car's owner appeared at a window looking sheepish. 'Ron called that stop the handbrake test. You passed, or you rolled back into the hedge.'

Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said the saga had given him a new way of describing the firm's pool car, which has sat wedged in the same disputed bay for six years because nobody has the nerve to tell Dave from accounts he's parked across two spaces. 'Sometimes the bravest move is admitting the current position isn't ideal,' he said, before adding that his band had briefly considered writing a song called S-Bend, but decided it needed more of a chorus.

A council spokesperson said all comments, for and against, would be taken into account before any formal consultation begins.

The stop itself was unavailable for comment, though it is understood to be quietly packing.