Wimborne residents plea for buses to be brought back (From Bournemouth Echo)

Wimborne residents plea for buses to be brought back

10:00am Sunday 13th January 2013 in News By Alex Winter

FURY: Residents of Martindale Avenue and Foxcroft Avenue in Colehill who have submitted a petition calling for the reinstatement of a bus service along Leigh Road to Wimborne. Picture: Richard Crease ID: 15717654

MORE than 200 frustrated Wimborne residents have signed a petition to bring buses back to a major road.

The petition, which asks for bus services from Wimborne Road West, Leigh Road and surrounding local roads to be reinstated, will now be considered by Dorset County Council’s Environment Overview Committee on Thursday.

Susan Langston, who started the petition with her husband Douglas, said there has been a huge response.

“We purposefully bought our property six and a half years ago because there was a bus stop on either side of the road,” Mrs Langston said.

“Both my mother and my mother-in-law were living with us, and we thought it was the perfect situation for them as they could easily travel into the town centre. However, once we’d moved in, we realised the buses had stopped a month or two months previously.”

The nearest serviced bus stops are for the number 13 route, which are a Friars Copse and Middlehill Road at the top of Hayes Lane, or the circular 88, which runs down Hayes Lane, part of Wimborne Road West and Leigh Road.

The petition is calling for every other number 13 bus leaving the Canford Bottom roundabout to travel along Wimborne Road West and Leigh Road and into the town.

Mrs Langston, who lives in Wimborne Road West, said: “Although the 88 does cover some of Wimborne Road West, it’s not helpful for the people at the other end of the road.

“My husband and I are quite fit and able, but it’s still at 15 to 20 minute walk to the nearest bus stop, and it’s just not possible for an elderly person to do. This is why we are asking. We’re always being told to support our local shops but residents have no way to get there.”

Doreen Moxham, who lives in nearby Martindale Avenue with her husband, said: “It just seems daft to me.

“Everyone’s fed up of it. It seems ridiculous that it’s so hard to get into town and back again.”

The petition currently has 238 signatures.

Director for the environment at the county council Miles Butler wrote in a report on the petition: “Providing a new service for the areas stated in the petition could incur additional subsidy requirement of between £50k and £100k depending on whether peak services were included.”