Plea to save bus service dismissed as 'bribe'

AN attempt to extend a bus service running linking Yate and several villages to Thornbury and Cribbs Causeway until June has been dismissed as an “election bribe”.

The 622 service will be axed from the start of April, along with many other subsidised bus routes in the West of England region.

The three councils in the region, including South Gloucestershire, said they couldn’t afford to increase the amount they pay to subsidise all of the services enough to cover rapidly-rising costs.

Conservative council leader Toby Savage urged Labour Metro Mayor Dan Norris to pay £785,000 to keep some routes going for a couple more months, until the new dial-aride WESTlink service, which launches in April, beds in.

But Mr Norris claimed the real reason behind the calls to keep the 622 service - which stops at Nibley Rangeworthy and Bagstone - running was the local elections on May 4.

The two politicians disagreed on the request for extra cash during a meeting of the West of England Combined Authority on March 17.

Cllr Savage said: "The councils did want to extend a number of supported services over several months, and we built into our budgets the increased costs next year, at the levels advised by WECA.

“Those costs have now come in higher than anyone thought they would. It’s now too late for councils to get approval for those costs. The only decision-making route open to us is today’s meeting to ensure that those vital transitional services can continue to be commissioned.

Cllr Savage suggested the £785,000 could come from the West of England’s reserves. But one issue is that the West of England has some of the lowest financial reserves of all 10 combined authorities in England, according to WECA bosses.

Mr Norris said: “What Toby has said about not being able to make an emergency decision is simply not the case. There are processes that you can adopt if you wish to do that.

"I’m going to be a politician now and say that this is more about an election bribe than anything else."

The amendment to spend £785,000 of the West of England’s reserves on keeping some routes going was voted down.

Afterwards Frampton Cotterell ward councillor Claire Young accused the Metro Mayor and Cllr Savage of "bickering over politics rather than helping the people of South Gloucestershire who rely on these buses for work, school and getting about".

A school bus service which lost funding has been saved at least until the end of the summer term - but fares are more than doubling.

The 967 from Westerleigh to

Brimsham Green School in Yate has been dropped by Stagecoach but taken over by another operator, Transpora Group.

However, fares are going up from £1.20 to £3 for a return trip.

Yate town councillor Chris

Willmore said the bus served "some of the poorest people in the community" who cold not afford the rise.

Meeting report by Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service