Recent cuts to bus services have affected many communities across the West of England region, but one area particularly impacted by recent cuts to bus services is Winterbourne, just north of Bristol. These have left children struggling to get to school and some people with jobs in Bristol finding it too difficult to get into work.
Three services used by many pupils to get to high schools were almost scrapped, leaving many teenagers struggling to get into school from September. But South Gloucestershire Council has stepped in to find alternative funding for three routes, for the next academic year.
Duncan Porter lives in Winterbourne and said he recently quit his job as a software developer in Bristol, largely due to how difficult it was to commute to work on the bus. He added that the increasing amount of traffic going through the village is now “getting to breaking point”.
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Mr Porter said: “I drove in today purely because I couldn’t rely on the buses. On Wednesday I was trying to get to work for a meeting, two buses didn’t turn up and I had to get an Uber which cost about £23.
“From Winterbourne’s perspective, we’ve taken the brunt of it. We need to see a properly run bus service, not just one where the private companies are able to hold the councils to ransom. There’s no competition, and running this as a private enterprise just does not work if it’s not properly regulated."
Mr Porter was one of many campaigners at a launch of a petition calling for bus franchising on College Green on Friday, July 7. This would see the region's bus network brought back under public control, and is being explored in other parts of the country.
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He added: “I actually quit my job this week, partially but quite a lot because being able to get into Bristol from Winterbourne is problematic for me. I ran a software developer department for a travel company. This company in Bristol has now lost an employee because of the inability of councils to run proper infrastructure, which is insane.
“People are angry because they’re just chopping services based on what’s most profitable for them, and not what the community needs. People are frustrated, people are angry. It’s not just losing their services, but the increase in traffic going through the village is getting to breaking point. There’s a huge swell of frustration and anger in Winterbourne.”
