MELKSHAM’S Metro town bus service will be hit by unexpected cuts next week as Wiltshire Council looks to save money.
The changes have been criticised as the number 14 and 15 local buses will make fewer daily journeys, not stop at the new football stadium after 12.20pm on a Saturday, and won’t visit Skylark Road until 9.51am on weekdays.
The new changes, dubbed ‘alterations’ by the council, will come into effect on Monday 6th February.
Public transport campaigner Graham Ellis has called the move a ‘bombshell’ and said the council has ‘squandered’ an opportunity to improve the town’s bus services.
Graham told Melksham News, “These alterations are cuts. The reassurance from Wiltshire Council of no cuts next year was, in hindsight, probably made because they had already cynically decided to cut our services by up to 60% in the current year.
“Melksham’s town bus service has been ripe for update for a while, and those updates should have been planned to reduce the need for subsidy, increase options for passengers, encourage greater bus use, and help the economy of the town centre.
“However, the opportunities appear to have been squandered and pushed through without local consultation, without regard to past promises made and without regard to network logic – it’s just cuts that will form part of a downward spiral.”
The changes to the services will mean buses to the north of the town – to the Granville Road and Beanacre Road area – will now run five times a day instead of eight, and three times on a Saturday. The last bus out of the Market Place to those areas will leave at 1.01pm, three hours earlier than the current service.
Bus services from the new Oakfields football and rugby ground will be reduced from eight on weekdays and six on Saturdays to six on weekdays and two on Saturdays.
The 15 bus will now visit Skylark Road following the completion of the estate, with the first journey of the day at 9.51am.
Graham added, “The first Monday to Friday bus was previously 8.30am; the change means that public transport is no longer available from that area for people working in the town.”
The buses also won’t visit the train station, something campaigners have been pushing for; the station was used 60,000 times last year.
Wiltshire Council says it made the changes in order to run the buses in a “more cost effective manner”.
For more information contact the council’s passenger transport unit on 718080 or buses@wiltshire.gov.uk
