Full approval given to new plan to improve bus services around Wiltshire
There will be a number of changes around the county
Wiltshire Council has unanimously approved plans to improve and increase bus services throughout the county.
In February this year, the government announced its National Bus Strategy in which it confirmed £5bn of funding to drastically change bus and cycle links outside of London.
In its own strategy the council has detailed how it plans to use its funding to give bus users more and enhanced routes across Wiltshire.
The first major £1.2m project being an “improved flexible demand responsive” network in the Pewsey Vale.
A spokesman for the local authority said:
“Better bus services will provide increased provision and options for travel to shoppers accessing local centres, which will help to facilitate the growth set out in the Wiltshire Core Strategy.
“In turn, a better overall bus service will provide the car driver with a viable travel alternative and go towards increasing modal shift and benefiting the council’s carbon neutral ambitions.”
In March 2020, the government granted Wiltshire £671,000 to help to improve the provision of local bus services.
As a result, a number of bus improvement areas have been proposed in locations including Tidworth, Salisbury, Amesbury, and Ludgershall.
At the latest cabinet meeting, councillors were told that the plans would also see a levelling of fares – as the closer to Salisbury the route is, the more expensive it is.
Cllr Jon Hubbard, who chairs the Children’s Select committee, said he was encouraged by the plans but asked the council to look at greater access to education:
“The problem for young people in my community is that if they want to study in an academic environment that isn’t sixth form, they have to travel.
“They have to be able to pay to go to it which presents real challenges and the greatest shame of it is that the only joy they have on their 16th birthday is that they start paying full adult fares, and they do not get concessionary rates anymore.”
He said one of the top issues young people speak about with the committee is access to education and public transport.