ABOUT 1,000 people have signed a petition started by two teenagers in response to a bus company’s plans to axe a route later this month.
One councillor said people living near Ledbury would be “left high and dry” when Stagecoach cuts the 132 route between Ledbury and Newent from February 27.
The company said the changes, which include a different timetable for the 32 route from Ross-on-Wye to Gloucester via Newent, was due to a drop in passenger numbers, with services running at a loss.
But two pupils from Ross-on-Wye’s John Kyrle High School in Ledbury Road have had more than 980 people sign their petition urging Stagecoach to rethink.
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Teenager Violet Hill set up the petition with fellow student Bryce Elwine, and said the new 32 timetable would make commuting on buses between Newent and Ross “completely impossible” for people who work 9am until 5pm.
The students said on the petition that people in Newent who use the 132 bus to get to school will be “completely abandoned”.
The petition added: said: “It is absolutely appalling that Stagecoach is withdrawing these services just before things will be getting back to normal with Covid.
“Not to mention the environmental implications of everyone who would usually get the bus, using cars to get to and from Ross.”
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Newent’s Liberal Democrats county councillor Gill Moseley said it was devastating news, with a little over a month’s notice seemed “totally unfair”.
Coun Moseley said: “This is devastating news both for the regular and occasional users of these routes but Stagecoach states that the number of passengers is 60 per cent down on pre-Covid figures and the service is unviable.”
She added: “Not only will Newent residents be unable to access the area north of our town by public transport, but people who live in Dymock and in the surrounding rural areas between here and Ledbury will be left high and dry.
“The service to Ross is very limited. The notice of little more than a month seems totally unfair and I have raised the question of consultation.”
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