RESIDENTS have appealed to Worcestershire County Council to reinstate an hourly bus service back through Great Malvern.
The calls have been made in a bid to have the number 42 bus run more frequently after it fell victim to county council cuts in September last year.
Now a two hourly bus, the service has also had its route slightly changed and that includes the 8am route missing out Great Malvern so youngsters from Dyson Perrins CofE Academy can get to school on time.
Carolyn Hadfield, of Brook Farm Drive, is a regular user but told The Observer the new journey to Great Malvern now costs £5 due to transfers, when before September a return was just £2.
Caroline also has to care for her partner Christopher Hyde, who suffers from life-threatening conditions. She added he often worries due to the time gaps between buses.
“He tends to panic,” she said. “He wants to know exactly what time I am coming back and if anything goes wrong and I can’t make the bus he gets very worked up and it makes me not want to go out even more.
“An hourly service would be a great help.
“The service itself from here is good but we need that bus back going to Great Malvern.”
Town councillor Martin Lawrence added: “If you consider how many people are actually isolated through ill health or are lonely because their partner has passed away, they desperately need to be able to get out and about into the community.
“They need to get to places like the doctors, the chemists, food shopping and the change from one hour to two hours and the cutting out of Great Malvern from the 8.07am journey means it makes it so difficult for residents to do that.”
A county council spokesperson said the authority had a smaller budget and needed to save around £25million each year until 2017/18.
“Last year the county council consulted with residents on the future of subsidised bus services and based on this feedback and a subsequent service-by-service review we were able to continue running a total 73 services.
“However this did mean that while links to schools, rural areas, health services and essential shopping areas largely remained in place some changes including those to routes and frequency levels were needed.
“There may be other alternatives such as community transport available to her and we urge this resident to get in touch to see what alternatives there are for her to use.”
To find out more, he said bus users could get assistance on planning bus journeys across Worcestershire by visiting www.traveline.info or by calling Traveline on 0871 200 2233.
