Bid to save buses in Bardwell and other Suffolk villages

Bardwell Parish Council has spearheaded a taskforce to save bus routes served by the old 304, 337 and 338 routes, now the 70, 70A, and 73 respectively, managed by Simonds Buses.

The company, recently bought by Vectare, said it had to drop the routes connecting Diss to Bury St Edmunds due to a lack of financial viability.

Last Friday afternoon, the Save Our Buses group submitted a bid to the county council for money to keep the buses running ahead of their axing on December 27.

Councillor Joanna Spicer, who represents affected villages such as Bardwell, Ixworth, and Barningham, said the group had submitted a high-quality bid and is confident a conclusion should come in time.

She added: “I’ve been asking to have this decision well before Christmas so parents can have confidence over Christmas the bus will turn up there at the beginning of January.

“I’m perfectly confident we will be able to continue that service but I can’t be sure at this stage to what level."

In early October, there were reports of children who struggled to get to school on time being given detention and black marks.

The county council initially picked up the bill to keep the services running until the December deadline and, although a final figure for how much the bid could be worth was not yet disclosed due to ongoing negotiations, Ms Spicer revealed the authority spent around £40,000 to keep the buses alive since August.

The government has announced Suffolk will receive more than £8million to improve buses locally, some of which will be used to assess these bids.

Ms Spicer also stressed part of the effort would be to ensure the number of passengers using the services was high enough to keep the service healthy by the end of the two years covered by the bid money.

She added: “The idea of the pot of money is that it helps make the services sustainable in the long run.

“As a county councillor, I’ll be the first person to say I don’t want buses careering around the countryside with one person in them, it’s not a good use of council tax money.

A new bus route has been announced for Thurston Community College (Image: Newsquest)

“We won’t be frightened, if it’s going to a village and there is nobody getting on then we’re not going to see public money spent on running a bus there - obviously I want my buses back but I also want the council taxpayer to get a good deal.”

Some of the ways to ensure the routes’ survival suggested by the task force included introducing season tickets, market day rides, advertising, and changes to timetabling.

Since Simonds’ announcement, the company has also introduced a new 73A route to ease access to Thurston Community College for student passengers from villages including Ixworth, Bardwell and Barningham.