Staffordshire bus services axed but one saved by community action
Community leaders have stepped in to fund a morning bus used by students and workers – but the rest of the service connecting villages with Stafford faces the axe in April.
The 13 and 13A services operated by D&G Bus will be cancelled from April 1, Staffordshire County Council has announced.
The services currently run between Stone, Eccleshall, Norton Bridge, Great Bridgeford, Seighford and Stafford and were funded by the Department of Transport. But this funding will finish at the end of March, following the permanent closure of Norton Bridge Railway Station in October 2017.
Eccleshall Parish Council and Councillor Jeremy Pert, who represents the Eccleshall area on Stafford Borough and Staffordshire County councils, are set to fund one of the 13A’s morning services running from Eccleshall to Stafford however. This bus will become part of the existing 14 service, between Hanley and Stafford, which will continue to run after March 31.
Five local businesses – Perrys of Eccleshall, iTech, London House Indian Restaurant, the eFest and What’s on in Eccleshall – have also supported the morning service by offering to help fund timetables to be distributed to Eccleshall residents in mid-March.
Last year D&G Bus’s Chris Almond told Eccleshall Parish Council that the DfT funding for the bus service had been due to finish in October 2017 but was extended.
Speaking on Monday he said: “The 13 has been funded for entirely by the railway for 12 months. In this case we are just a contractor providing a service and the contract has come to an end.
“The service rarely carried more than 25 passengers a day; it is very quiet. It is not a commercially viable service unfortunately.
“The only villages that are likely to be left without a bus service are Norton Bridge and Seighford, but usage in both of those is very low.”
Cost
Seighford Parish Council chairman David Price said the loss of the bus service was due to be discussed at the council’s next meeting on March 18.
Chebsey Parish Council chairman Councillor Margaret Ainsworth-Hickman said the loss of the bus service for Norton Bridge had been discussed at recent meetings but that the parish council would be unable to afford funding to keep it running.
“Councillor Pert has met with D&G Bus. But we are a tiny council with a low precept – the cost to do it would be astronomical,” she said.
“Some young people and adults use it to get to college or get to work but the numbers don’t make it viable, which is a great shame. We are very disappointed – we have also lost our library and lost our pub.”
But the continuation of the morning Eccleshall to Stafford service has been welcomed.
Councillor Pert said D&G Bus had been “enormously supportive” in the campaign to keep the morning service running.
He said: “This bus service is well used already, so if we can persuade a few more local people to use it consistently and drive up passenger numbers, then this service has the possibility of being commercially viable for the long term. So this approach to keeping the bus service on the road, supporting those in work and full time education, could have a lasting benefit.
“This solution could not have been delivered without every party coming together and wanting to keep this bus running.”
Eccleshall Parish Council chair Graham Garner said: “The parish council is delighted to be able to support this venture, which we think will be much appreciated by the local community.
“With so many new houses in the town, letting people know of the bus service we hope will ensure that the service will be well used in the long term”.
By local democracy reporter Kerry Ashdown
