Campaign for better buses

A RILED resident from Weston has started a campaign to improve bus services for the town's residents.

Clive Robinson, of Selworthy Road on the Bournville estate, has collected 260 signatures on a petition and met Weston's MP John Penrose to complain about the poor bus service.

The 54-year-old has also written to First Transforming Travel to complain about services three, seven and 14, as well as the poor quality of the vehicles themselves.

He said: "I have only lived in Weston for eight months but I have lost count of the number of times buses have been extremely late or not turned up at all.

"Those that do show are normally quite old, very cold and a lot of them do not have low level flooring for people with prams.

"Each time a bus has not shown I have rung the bus company straight away to find out why. Their excuses included the fact the driver was ill or the bus had broken down.

"Once when I was waiting for the number 14 service a lady told me she had walked all the way from the hospital to the Oldmixon estate because it hadn't turned up."

Mr Robinson said that in just one week in November four buses failed to show and that was when he decided he wanted to do something about it.

He left a petition in Quids In shop, in Lonsdale Avenue, for residents to sign, which he handed to Mr Penrose at a meeting on Friday.

Mr Penrose has said he will write to the managing director of First Transforming Travel to find out about plans for new buses, routes and any plans to improve reliability.

First Transforming Travel operations manager for Weston and Wells, Richard Lewis, said: "We believe we have got a reliable service on the number seven bus.

"We have had some problems with number 14. A road closure near Locking Castle has contributed to this.

"We reorganised service three about nine months ago and we are now hoping to make this a 15 minute frequency rather than the every half an hour service currently in place.