A standout at this year’s ADEPT local government awards, Hertfordshire County Council has turned a bus shelter into an accessible community asset with significant biodiversity benefits.
One of the greatest privileges of serving as ADEPT President is seeing first-hand the innovation taking place in local authorities across the country. Every year the ADEPT President’s Awards showcase projects and teams that are not only technically excellent but also are improving lives, strengthening communities and creating places where people want to live, work and spend time.
This year’s winner of the Shaping Places for People Award was a perfect example of that ambition and drive in action.
Hertfordshire County Council’s Community Shelters project could easily have been viewed simply as a programme of bus shelter improvements. Instead, it challenges us to think differently about what public infrastructure can achieve when communities are placed at the heart of new designs.
As judges, we were struck by the quality of the thinking behind this project. Every decision began with a simple question: what does this community need?
That philosophy runs throughout the project. Rather than applying a standard design across the county, each location is shaped by local people. Residents, parish councils, schools, businesses and community organisations help determine what would make their bus stop a genuine community asset.
The award-winning scheme at The Quadrant in Sandridge, St Albans, demonstrates exactly what this looks like in practice.
What had previously been little more than an exposed waiting area has become an attractive and welcoming public space. A modern shelter with accessible seating and armrests has been installed beneath a living green roof that supports biodiversity. Wooden planters, maintained by local volunteers, connect the shelter to the neighbouring community garden, while additional seating creates a flexible space that can be used throughout the day by everyone, whether they are catching a bus or simply taking a moment to rest.
Perhaps most importantly, the shelter now reflects the identity of the community around it. Public artwork created by local artists aged from six to seventy is displayed in each shelter, transforming it into a celebration of local creativity and pride.
None of this happened by chance.
As Abby Darby, Hertfordshire County Council’s Intalink Highways Officer, explained to me, the project succeeds because it starts with listening. Community Shelters are nominated by local people before council officers work alongside residents, parish councils and local partners to design a solution that reflects local priorities. No two shelters are exactly the same because no two communities are exactly the same.
That collaborative approach extends beyond construction. Community ownership continues long after the ribbon has been cut. In Sandridge, volunteers who already care for the adjacent community garden also maintain the shelter’s planters, creating a genuine sense of shared stewardship that benefits everyone.
The project also demonstrates that transport infrastructure has a far wider role to play than simply moving people from one place to another.
Waiting environments which are well designed and welcoming encourage active travel, improve accessibility and create safer, greener and more welcoming public spaces.
These are exactly the kinds of integrated outcomes that local authorities are often striving to achieve.
The Community Shelters programme, launched in 2022, has already delivered eleven completed sites, with many more currently in development. Each new location builds on the same principle while responding to its own local character, whether that means incorporating artwork, improved accessibility, real time passenger information, new planting or even community features such as book exchange facilities.
Just as impressive has been the response from local communities. Residents have embraced the transformed spaces, local businesses have welcomed the improvements, and the positive feedback has continued long after the official opening. As Abby reflected, while passenger numbers have not yet been formally measured, the community response has been “really positive” with widespread appreciation from residents and local shopkeepers alike.
Recognition through events like the ADEPT President’s Awards is important because it allows outstanding ideas like this to be shared more widely. Local authorities face similar challenges but can also learn from each other’s successes.
Hertfordshire County Council has shown that when we invest in people as much as infrastructure, even something as familiar as a bus shelter can become a catalyst for stronger communities and a renewed sense of local pride.
For me, that perfectly captures what shaping places for people is all about.
Angela Jones was ADEPT President from 2025 to 2026 and Director of Thriving Places at Westmorland and Furness Council.
Image: ADEPT / Hertfordshire County Council