MANSFIELD’S bus station celebrates its first birthday at the end of the month with a day’s worth of activities.

The new building opened its doors to the public on March 31 last year after being officially opened two weeks earlier by the Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Patrick McLoughlin.

On Saturday, March 29 a whole series of birthday activities will mark the occasion, beginning with the cutting of a special celebratory cake and continuing throughout the day.

Highlights include performances by the Portland College ipad band and the Mansfield Community Gospel Choir, Wheel of Fortune and Hunt the Bus games and a balloon modeller.

The bus station is on course to be used by more than five million passengers a year – more than East Midlands Airport.

By March 31:

Over 300,000 bus departures will have been made

The station will have been open for more than 6,700 hours

It will have handled more than 600 items of lost property

The Travel Information Team will have sold nearly 7,200 tickets on behalf of National Express, Stagecoach and Trent Barton.

“It’s been a fantastic first year for us and we want to celebrate with our regular customers and also get non-bus travellers to come in and see what they’re missing,” said station manager Elliott Mizen.

“We’ve had good feedback from people who have passed through the bus station over the last 12 months – and we’ve also won a couple of design awards along the way!

“We’ve now got everything up and running including the Spar shop, the café and an ice cream stand in summer months, and we even sell coach and bus tickets – there is an awful lot going on!”

“The building is warm and welcoming and we get many positive comments from new visitors to the town, impressed with the facilities on offer – the bus station is the envy of many other towns and we regularly get visits from representatives from other towns looking at what can be done”

The new station is fully enclosed and has a comfortable waiting area with plenty of seating, toilets, a baby changing area, shop and café.

It has a high-tech video wall for use by businesses and community groups and which will help provide local information on a variety of subjects.

It boasts a staffed travel information office, electronic timetable information, CCTV cameras linked to the town centre system and automatic doors separating the waiting passengers from buses.

A new footbridge links the bus station to Mansfield’s train station, helping to create a transport “hub” in the town, encouraging more people to travel by public transport and playing a crucial part in the regeneration and future prosperity of the town centre.