Councillors demand apology for bus disruption

9.15.56am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 10th Jun 2009

Councillors Roger Symonds and Cherry Beath (Lib Dems, Combe Down), have asked the Council to apologise for the disruption to bus services 2 and 13 to Combe Down over the past few weeks. The half-hourly service has become, at best, hourly during the rush hour because of the closure of Dorchester Street.

Local Cllrs Roger and Cherry have fought for bus service improvements for Combe Down

Councillor Roger Symonds said, "An apology is necessary because there was no effort made to try to make life easier during the period of the closure of Dorchester Street. Not only did local people not feature in the planning for this closure, neither local councillors nor residents in Combe Down received any warning about the delays and disruption. I believe that there were actions that could have been taken to minimise the problems.

"Bus users on Combe Down believe that the Council just didn't care that buses were impossibly delayed. An apology might go some way to persuading them otherwise."

Councillor Cherry Beath added, "Everyone knew that there would be disruption during the Southgate works and there was an amazing amount of forbearance and goodwill from local people, but the way the Council has mismanaged these problems and ignored the effect on local people is quite staggering.

"It is not enough just to put out a press release. The least they could have done was to brief local councillors, but the first we knew of the problems was when we had phone calls from distressed and angry residents."

Quote from email message from a local resident: "I have met a number of people over the past few weeks who have waited for buses for up to an hour and have also walked all over with shopping, small children and buggies in tow only being told to go to another bus stop on the other side of town."