Conservatives plan to scrap Market Harborough town bus service

Sad news from the Harborough Mail:

Market Harborough’s number 33 town-and-around bus service is at risk of being axed - because it doesn’t come close to paying for itself. 

In fact the service costs Leicestershire County Council a huge £109,000 a year to keep it running, the Mail has been told. 

And with the cash-strapped county looking to save £400,000 on public transport the town’s 33 service is “red-listed” in the council’s own consultation document. 

That means it’s a service “likely to be discontinued” as a county-council contracted service.

As far as I recall, this service had been put in place just before I came back to live in Harborough. The first piece community campaigning I got involved with was a residents' survey in Great Bowden to see how people were finding it.

The new, small buses that operated it were known as 'Fox Cubs' as they were run by the Midland Fox company.

There is a desperate lack of joined-up thinking here. Our new Conservative MP has taken a laudable interest in the issue of loneliness, but it will only be made worse as his government and council group scrap the services that help older and poorer people stay in the swim.

Anyway, if you want to try to save the 33 bus, there is a consultation on transport policy open on the county council website.