In Wiltshire 89 per cent of households have access to at least a daily weekday bus service. Wiltshire Council currently supports about 50 per cent of the total bus mileage financially, with the rest provided by private bus companies with no financial support from the authority.
Wiltshire Council has no control over the commercial routes provided.
This funding of supported bus services costs Wiltshire Council over £5.6 million each year. Wiltshire Council is well aware that local bus services often provide the way many local people have to get to employment, to services or for leisure and it is the council’s intention to keep this going wherever possible.
However, every year we are under pressure to make more reductions to services to meet the budget restraints imposed on us. In the future the council is very aware that central government will be giving less support. If we do nothing we will simply degrade supported services until they fail and have to be terminated.
To this end a Wiltshire Public Transport Review has been set in motion and the public consultation of the council’s services will be launched at workshops and online in late autumn.
We are already meeting with various service providers, customers and interested parties to shape this review by discussing options for the future. Meetings have been held in Salisbury, Chippenham, Devizes and Trowbridge.
We would like to hear suggestions for improving or safeguarding your services so please attend the public workshops later this year, or respond online to tell us what you think and how things might be improved or safeguarded.
Philip Whitehead, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport.
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