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Bus stops in Alcester, Bidford-on-Avon, Henley-in-Arden, Shipston-on-Stour and Studley could get new shelters, better surfaces and live departure screens under a £12 million bus improvement plan approved by Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet on Thursday 12 November. Stratford-upon-Avon itself isn’t among the towns named.
The money comes from the Department for Transport’s Local Authority Bus Grant and is to be spent over four years, from 2026-27 to 2029-30, the county council says. Because the grant pays for all of it, the council says there’s no cost to its own budget.
What’s in it for the Stratford district
Of the £12 million, £752,000 is set aside for smaller improvements at bus stops across the county: new shelters, resurfacing and real-time information displays showing when the next bus is due. The council lists eight “key settlements which could benefit”, and five of them are in the Stratford district: Alcester, Bidford-on-Avon, Henley-in-Arden, Shipston-on-Stour and Studley. The other three are Coleshill, Kingsbury and Water Orton in north Warwickshire.
“Could benefit” is the council’s wording: it hasn’t said which stops in each town will be upgraded, or when. We tried to read the Cabinet report for that detail, but the council’s papers site blocked our request with a security check, so we’ll add the stop list once we can read it.
Where the rest goes
- Nuneaton bus station: £6 million to rebuild it on a smaller site.
- Rugby town centre: £250,000 for new shelters and moved stops on North Street and Church Street.
- £5.049 million for other schemes: better bus corridors, a smartcard pilot that works across bus companies, priority for buses at busy junctions, and wider real-time information.
The bus station and interchange schemes start from 2027-28. Councillor Stephen Shaw, the county’s portfolio holder for transport and planning, called the funding “a significant milestone for Warwickshire’s public transport network”.
What happens next
The Cabinet’s decision goes to a meeting of the full county council in December 2026 for final approval, which adds the grant to the council’s capital programme. Until then, you can check departure times from Stratford’s stops on our bus times page, and villages without a regular service can use the IndieGo Plus on-demand bus.
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Alex Harrington
Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.
