Bus cuts bring upheaval to rural 'forgotten valley'

PEOPLE living in villages in North East Somerset's “forgotten valley” have warned that cuts to their bus services are disrupting their lives.

- JOHN WIMPERIS

> From left, Sam Harris, Peter Ghillyer, Rebecca Hall, and Ann Morgan at a bus stop in High Littleton; below left, Councillor Sam Ross at a bus stop in Farmborough

Over recent years, villages in the rural heart of the district have lost almost all of their bus services. Now a reduction in frequency of one of the few remaining buses, which came into effect over Easter, will make it difficult for people to reach work, school, and the doctor.

“For the residents who depend on this service, these are not minor timetable adjustments. They represent the removal of services upon which they depend entirely’ warned Sam Ross, Green councillor for Clutton and Farmborough on Bath and North East Somerset Council, in a letter to the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) urging it to halt the plan to cut the 172 from a half-hourly bus to hourly.

For Rebecca Hall, the 172 bus is essential to get around and to get her two children to school. But now because of how the timings will line up, her family will need to leave their home in Hallatrow an hour earlier in the mornings to get to Temple Cloud to reach school on time.

It is only the next village over, but the roads connecting them do not have pavements and Ms Hall cannot drive due to epilepsy. She said: “I moved to the village specifically because it had the bus service and now I feel dispirited that it’s just taken away without real consideration.”

Hallatrow, neighbouring High Littleton, and villages all along the A39 used to be served by a host of buses running to Bath and to Bristol. But in 2023, many of these were axed and the villages were instead left with the 172 and the new 522 service, both of which run in a “southerly loop” between Bath and Bristol via Midsomer Norton and Radstock.