A long-running proposal to build a bus station and access road to Borehamwood's Boulevard 25 shopping centre has been dropped.

Boulevard 25 owner, Hercules Property Ltd, has not included the bus station and access road proposals in its modernisation programme for the shopping centre, but Shenley Road shop Securiglaze is due to be knocked down in the next few months to make way for an improved pedestrian link.

The shopping centre's previous owner, Great Portland Estates, was given the go-ahead for the £2m bus and access scheme, by the borough council, three years ago.

It was hoped that it would breathe new life into town centre trade, by improving links between Boulevard 25 and Shenley Road, and attract shoppers to Boulevard 25.

Great Portland Estates, in partnership with Hertsmere Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council, had planned to create a new entrance to Boulevard 25, by the Furzehill Road roundabout in Shenley Road, and build a bus station, between Hansons newsagents and Securiglaze.

There were also proposals for a town square, with trees, fountain and sculptures.

The scheme was put on hold following the sale of Boulevard 25 to Hercules Property last year, and this week the shopping centre's manager Bernard Davy confirmed that it had been dropped.

He said: "The bus terminal will not go ahead, but we will open Boulevard 25 up into the high street as a pedestrianised link."

He said the scheme had been dropped because Boulevard 25 had not received any commitment that buses would stop there, and because there were already two other bus stations in the town, at Shenley Road's Tesco and Elstree and Borehamwood Station.

He added: "We do not need three bus terminals in the centre of town."

The borough's Councillor Morris Bright said: "Whilst it means there will be less traffic in the very heart of the town, it does somehow feel like an opportunity has been missed to help Borehamwood by improving transport links into it."

Councillor Frank Ward said: "I think it is very, very sad if you trade in a town, but you are not prepared to co-operate in working to improve transport links with your place of business and outlying areas of the town."

Stan Coller, spokesman for TRAPPT, which campaigns for transport rights for elderly people, said a bus station would have made it easier for elderly people to shop at Boulevard 25.

But Stan Coles, secretary of the Elstree and Borehamwood Old People's Welfare Association, believes the current access is adequate, and added: "It might be safer for pedestrians in the Boulevard if there are not buses running around."

Mr Davy said the bus station would not have brought more buses to the town, and believes Hercules Property's plans for modernising the centre, which opened in 1988, are better than the abandoned scheme.

He said a second stage of refurbishment, being carried out, involves: landscaping with shrubs and bushes, new shop canopies, more car-parking spaces and new signs at the Theobald Street entrance. The first stage tackled lighting and painting.

He added that, as well as a planned £1m medical centre, a new sports shop was due to open and there was a lot of interest in the vacant unit left by Tempo.