Ludlow bus service axed for second time
A bus service that was re-instated after a public campaign has been axed for the second time in the space of two years.
The 490 service between Ludlow and Leominster will revert to a school run only timetable within weeks when funding for the route runs out.
Daytime and weekend services between the two towns will cease on April 9.
Campaigners said plans for town and parish councils to pool resources to save the current service had not materialised. Fears had been raised for the future of the service when it emerged money from the Rural Transport Fund would only last until the end of March.
Les Lumsden, spokesman for Save Our Buses, said the service was a lifeline for people living in villages between the two towns.
But Councillor Vivienne Parry, who sits on Ludlow Town Council, said the authority did not have the money to help pay for the route.
The previous 492 service between Hereford and Ludlow had been halted at the Shropshire border in 2014 with the exception of two services for the school run.
But following a public campaign the route to Ludlow was reinstated last summer.
Mr Lumsden said: "Some of these people are coming to Ludlow on the bus every day, to go shopping or go to the doctor's and things like that. It's not as if the bus is empty.
"Now people will have to spend seven or eight hours in Ludlow so they just won't come."
He said there had been talk among some parish councils affected that they would put forward money to keep the service running but nothing came of the idea.
"To my mind if all the parish councils, along with Leominster and Ludlow town councils, had got together, it wouldn't have been a large sum for any council to find."
Herefordshire Council will review the service in September, but Mr Lumsden said he didn't hold out any hope that they would re-instate more frequent buses to Shropshire.
Councillor Parry said councillors would speak to bus companies about running at least one service a week to Overton and Ludlow Touring Park, and were making inquiries about running a "ring and ride" service to other villages.
