A busy bus stop at a west-end St. John's mall that was slated to close after the mall's management said it was contributing to crime at its businesses has been given a reprieve.

Tom Hann, chair of the St. John's Transportation Commission, told fellow city councillors Monday evening that Metrobus and the Village Mall had worked out a deal that will allow the bus service to keep using the mall's property.

"The good news for the Metrobus users is that we will not be leaving the Village," Hann said during the weekly council meeting. "We may be in some other spot on the parking lot, but we have come to a solution."

This spring, the mall's management told Metrobus it would have to find another site for its main transfer point in the city's west end.

In late March, Metrobus general manager Judy Powell said Metrobus was told it had until Aug. 22 to find a new transfer station in the same area.

Powell said she was told that mall retailers experienced an increase in sales and "a reduction in the number of security-related incidents" during the three-month transit strike that began last fall.