Missing the bus – cuts hit vital link for Dales residents

Garsdale station on the Settle to Carlisle railway used to be called Hawes Junction. But the town is five miles from the station – too far to walk conveniently – and the locals rely on the timetabled buses. The last connecting service of the day is a lifeline for those travelling to work or to study. One of them is Laura Mason, a newly-qualified nurse who grew up in Hawes.

"I've been a student in Leeds for three years, and I've used it to get home on weekends, and through the week if I'd been coming home," she says "If mum and dad haven't been home to come and pick me up, I've used the Little Red Bus to come back to Hawes."

Local people had already been told that funding for this final journey of the day is being axed from next April, but earlier this week they were also told that the timetable for the 113 bus, which at the moment is run by The Little Red Bus Company is being scrapped and replaced by a "demand responsive" service, which will have to be booked 24 hours in advance. Local county councillor, John Blackie is furious. "To me it's undermining the future sustainability of the community up in the top end of Upper Wensleydale.

"The service is a vital lifeline to those residents who do not have access to a car, and indeed to visitors who choose to come and support our local economy by arriving by train."

Katherine Head, 16, is another user of the final bus of the day, connecting with the last train in the evening. She lives near Hawes, and goes to Kirkby Stephen grammar school.

"If I stay back on a Wednesday, because I do extra maths lessons, I sometimes get the train from Kirkby to Garsdale, and then the Little Red Bus that drops me off, more or less at the end of the road.

"Sometimes if I stay back to do course work during the week generally, I will get the latest train back and the Little Red Bus."

For her father, Walter, it is the ideal solution, both for convenience, and for his daughter's safety.

"We know the bus meets her, we know the bus drivers, she gets on a bus, it drops her off and then he waits for her to walk up the drive to make sure she gets home. From a safety point of view it's very good."

Katherine says she will have to learn to drive as soon as she reaches 17 to make sure she can still get around.

North Yorkshire County Council confirmed that funding is being withdrawn from the evening service. A spokesman said the Comprehensive Spending Review left the county council facing the need to make 69m of savings over the next four and a half years, and that is why it is proposing that bus subsidies for services on Sundays and in the evenings be withdrawn.

In particular the council spokesman says the last bus connecting with the trains at Garsdale was poorly used anyway.

"In August, for example, on 19 of the 24 days that the 7.30pm bus ran, a maximum of three passengers were carried."

Coun Blackie is particularly worried about the impact the loss of the buses, may have on people who want improve their prospects by going to college in Leeds, Skipton or Carlisle. He also disputes the figures about the number of people using the last bus. "August isn't a month when colleges and training centres operate. I have the figures for October, and October tells me there is an average of four people on each trip."

Lyn Costelloe, the chief executive of Harrogate District Community Transport, which runs the Little Red Bus Company, says companies will only be able to afford to tender for the demand responsive service if they have other work to fill in the gaps between the buses being required to meet the trains. She says that such dial-a-ride buses can work if people know about them and how to

use them.

"It must be planned with the local community who should not be dictated to, they should be allowed to take part in this process."

CW 6/11/10