Proposed changes to a bus stop in Castletown square have been put on hold following protests by the town’s commissioners.

The commissioners said the stop would create a ’carbuncle’ and were annoyed their views were not considered before the scheme was scheduled to begin this week.

But now the Department of Infrastructure says the proposed work - to enhance public safety - is being postponed, pending the submission of a planning application.

The local authority first learned of the proposal - to improve access to buses by block paving one of the car parking spaces in the Parade - in October.

Daniel Pyle, engineer at the DoI, asked if there were ’any concerns’ regarding the works.

Commissioners’ clerk Hugo Mackenzie said the authority thought the design was ’rather unsympathetic to the Parade and the loss of car parking would not be popular.’

He suggested moving the stop to Farrant’s Way.

Last week, Mr Mackenzie discovered that the scheme was due to start yesterday (Monday).

He emailed Gary Saunders at the DoI, saying: ’In view of the feedback from my board members, would it not have been appropriate to discuss the matter in more detail rather than plough on regardless. What was the point of the consultation if it was to be ignored?’

He claimed in the absence of a planning application, the scheme would be in contravention of the Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development) Order 2012.

’My board would welcome the opportunity to consider alternative options that will not reduce parking and add another carbuncle onto the face of the historic Parade,’ he said.

Mr Mackenzie claimed the scheme was ’fundamentally flawed’ in that it proposes to allow 4.8m parking bays and a boarding pier of a slightly reduced length.

Given vehicles such as a transit tipper are 6.3m long and often park there, they will be longer than the bay, he said, and ’the bus will not get alongside the proposed boarding pier in a flush manner any case and passengers will be back to square one’.