In this process, many of the city's older buildings and streets were destroyed to make way for not just the bus station, but also the Southgate Shopping Centre and accompanying Ham Gardens car park.

It has seen the Labour nationalisation and the Conservative privatisation of public transport, and the morphing of Bristol Omnibus into Badgerline, which was acquired by FirstGroup and rebranded as First Somerset & Avon.

A new location for the bus station was chosen on the site of Churchill House – an abandoned 1920s electricity company building, the demolition of which sparked the most recent controversy to delay the whole project.

[12] Campaigners fighting for the preservation of the building argued that the frontage from Churchill House should be retained and incorporated into the design of the new bus station, but the architects maintained that this was not practical.

Revised plans for a glass and metal rotunda – nicknamed derisively by local people as the "Busometer"[13] – on the site close to Bath Spa railway station and on the edge of the River Avon were given council approval in early 2007 and work begun to construct this part of the transport interchange for the city.