MELKSHAM Councillor Jon Hubbard said he feels ‘disappointed and let down’ by the decision of First Bus to cancel their early morning buses running from Bowerhill.

According to Cllr Hubbard, the decision to stop the 6.48am and 7.41am 272 services will come as a bitter blow to residents who have already seen the free Melksham Rail Link bus axed last month.

The free rail link service, run by Frome Minibuses and funded through a Local Sustainable Transport Fund Grant, stopped on July 20 after Wiltshire Council was unable to secure funding to continue it.

Melksham also lost the 234 service at the beginning of this month after it was axed by First Group following a review of its services in Wiltshire, which resulted in the firm cutting a number of loss-making routes.

Cllr Hubbard said: “I feel personally very let down by First Bus, who have made this decision. Last time I spoke with First it was about how these popular services could also help replace the Rail Link service. Now residents in Bowerhill are left with nothing.

“First make all sorts of noises about wanting to see services succeed but then cut whole communities off at the knees. This is a callous cut that will affect a whole community and leave people struggling to get to work.

“It is also a cut which will potentially impact the viability of the TransWilts train service, as it will make it so much harder for people to get to the station.

“I will certainly be challenging First to explain how they can claim to be committed to making the rail services in Melksham successful when they are making decisions that can only be saving very small amounts of cash on an individual route but have horrendous impacts on other services and whole communities.”

Rail campaigner Graham Ellis said the decision to axe the Melksham Rail Link Bus has already had an impact on the TransWilts Rail Service passengers and added that the full impact of the cuts will not be clear until September.

Mr Ellis said: “The loss of the rail link bus was huge and we have already seen passenger numbers drop since it was axed. I have not seen some of the regular users of the TransWilts service who would need the rail link bus.

“The loss of the 272 is less significant for the TransWilts service, although the loss of the 234 evening service has made it difficult for commuters to get home after work. All the new timetables will be in place at the beginning of September, so we will have to wait and see.”

James Freeman, Managing Director of First West of England, said: "It appears that Councillor Hubbard may have made a mistake in that the journeys he references will in fact continue to serve Bowerhill.

"From 23 August 2015, the 06:03 and 06:55 Monday-Friday and the 06:22 and 07:21 Saturday 272  journeys from Bath - Bowerhill will start from Melksham Market Place at 06:48 and 07:41 Monday - Friday and 07:07 and 08:07 on Saturdays, they will then operate the current route from Melksham Market Place - Bowerhill via Melksham Station.

"The reason we are removing these journeys from Bath - Melksham is that the 271 & 272 will now be looked after by our team in Westbury.

"Those passengers wishing to travel to/from Melksham Station and Bowerhill will retain their early morning journeys. Some times throughout the rest of the day may be altered to improve punctuality and reliability on the route."