The search is on for a community-minded bus company to rescue the residents of several small communities from isolation after it was announced they were to lose a vital bus service.
The call follows the recent notice served by Stagecoach West on Herefordshire Council to withdraw the whole of bus service 33 between Ross-on-Wye and Gloucester via Weston-under-Penyard and Lea on Sunday, April 22.
The issue was high on the agenda of Monday’s Ross-on-Wye Town Council meeting where councillors echoed the concerns of local residents.
Councillor Rev Derek Bedford said: “Some of these villages are totally isolated, this is the last thing we need for the community.”
Councillor Rev Bedford also warned that the lack of public transport would force the public to use their own transport.
He said this would result in putting even more cars on the road negating the Government’s desires to encourage people to use alternative methods of travel.
Herefordshire Council is ‘actively investigating’ the provision of a subsidised replacement service.
Although the costs of this may result in fewer buses than before, it would provide one solution to the problem.
The current proposals are an extension of the existing hourly Hereford to Ross service to the Lea, or a service every two hours between Gloucester and Ross.
One letter to the council included a plea for the ‘vital lifeline’ to be ‘saved’, another from a resident in sheltered housing queried the purpose of free bus passes for the elderly if there were to be no buses to use them on!
As well as affecting the elderly the loss of the service is set to have an impact on commuters and those not old enough to drive.
Mayor of Ross, Councillor Phil Cutter said: “The loss of this service would seriously affect the local community.
“On a personal level one of my apprentices would be seriously effected as he travels from Lea to Wilton daily and to Gloucester for his technical training.”
This follows hot on the heals of Mr Cutter’s warning last week to ‘use or lose’ local services such as rural bus routes.
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