DESPITE declaring that car parking charges would safeguard funding for local bus services, Wiltshire Council is now proposing reductions to some bus services.
Proposals include cuts to the Westbury Weaver service, which currently runs from Westbury to Frome via Dilton Marsh and Chapmanslade, as well as providing a local service in Westbury. The service between Dilton Marsh, Chapmanslade, and Frome between 9.00am and 5.00pm will be withdrawn, while the Westbury town service will be reduced. The service to Dilton Marsh will also be reduced around school start/finish times and on Saturday afternoons.
Wiltshire Council say the changes to this route have been made due to low usage by the general public, with alternatives available for school children, and anticipate that the changes could be made in September this year.
The council will also withdraw its funding for the Warminster-Trowbridge section of the 264/265 route, which runs from Warminster to Bath via Westbury. The result is expected to be a reduction in the service from half-hourly to hourly, although additional journeys are now being provided between Warminster and Trowbridge by another provider.
The 51 “shoppers” bus service on Wednesdays from Chapmanslade to Warminster will be removed due to “almost nil” usage figures.
The X88 service from Chitterne to Bath, via Erlestoke and Bratton, will have the withdrawal of the Wednesday and Saturday shoppers bus service to Bath, with passengers advised that they can change buses in Warminster or Trowbridge instead.
Timetable changes have also been introduced on the 87 service from Trowbridge to Devizes via Westbury and Erle-stoke, as a result of Bodman’s Coaches decision to withdraw from operating this service.
Car parking charges
are just not enough
Last December, Wiltshire Council approved their plans for car parking charges in Westbury and other towns in the county by saying that their new “parking policy safeguards funding for local bus services.”
But Cllr Richard Gamble, Wiltshire Council’s portfolio holder for public transport, says the revenue from charges is just not enough, considering that the council needs to cut 12% from their bus services budget.
Cllr Gamble says that the income from car parking revenue means that they are “trimming” rather than “cutting” bus services. He said, “It would have been far worse if the car parking charges hadn’t been there.
“The car parking revenue has indeed ensured that communities will still have access to a bus service to local towns. The additional funding is expected to be worth about £1million and there is no doubt that, without that money, some communities would have lost their bus services entirely. However, it will not be sufficient to allow that no changes at all are made and we have had regard to the Local Transport Plan public transport strategy to provide a framework to determine priorities.
“I think it is fair to say that, even without the budget pressures, some of the “trimming” would have occurred in any event, which sometimes happens in the normal course of our review of services. The budget has injected an element of urgency to the process.”
