The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
More than 300 people have signed a petition calling for a vital bus service to be reinstated.
Many of the passengers of Brylaine’s Into Town service have put their names to a campaign calling on the company to bring back its early services between the Winsover Road side of town and the bus station.
The 7.30am and 8.30am buses were cancelled as the company struggled to meet punctuality targets due to increasing traffic congestion in Spalding.
But passengers Carol and Daisy Hudson launched the campaign after witnessing passengers, many of them very elderly, crammed “like sardines” onto overcrowded 9am buses.
They told the Spalding Voice they feared the elderly were “risking life and limb” as they were forced to stand in the aisles because all the seats were taken.
They have now taken their campaign to South Holland district councillor Angela Newton and South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes.
Coun Newton has written to operations manager at Brylaine, Malcolm Wheatley, to ask if anything can be done to bring back the early buses.
She said: “I have been in email contact with Mr Wheatley to see why they have also cut an early afternoon bus.
“He said the traffic commissioners insist that buses run to timetable and, with the extraordinary number of road works and traffic jams in Spalding, they have been unable to keep to timetables.
“They had therefore withdrawn a bus and altered what was a half hour service to be a three-quarters of an hour service.
“It seems to me that any reduction in service which causes more people to come into town in their own cars is a detrimental step.
“Traffic build up along Winsover Road waiting to go over the railway line is already intolerable.
“I am now awaiting a reply and have offered to be in touch with the transport officer at Lincoln to see if there is anything I can do, by way of perhaps getting a subsidy to enable Brylaine to reinstate one of the earlier buses.”
Carol and Daisy’s petition is now available to sign at the Spalding and South Holland Voice’s office in Winsover Road, or at Dad’ll Have Grumble hairdressers in Victoria Street.
Once completed they intend to hand the petition to Mr Hayes, who has already been approached by letter by a couple of people asking for his support.
Carol said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from people.
“It is an issue that really matters to a lot of people as the buses are the only way for many older people to get into town.
“They shouldn’t have to risk falling and hurting themselves just because their bus is so overcrowded.”
