Three popular bus routes will continue to be fully subsidised by council

Following public consultation, Cabinet Members from Bridgend County Borough Council have agreed that the local authority will continue to fully subsidise three popular local bus routes which had been threatened by funding cuts.

The number 51 Bridgend to Oaklands Road and number 803 Danygraig to Porthcawl services operated by Easyway, and the number 61 bus from Nottage to Porthcawl run by Peyton Travel will continue to receive council subsidies for at least the next 12 months.

We have listened to residents’ feedback and, as they are so valued by local communities, we will continue to provide the full subsidy for these three bus services for another year so that we have more time to explore alternative options.

Councillor Richard Young, Cabinet Member for Communities

Funding for two other bus routes which had been fully subsidised by the council will now be withdrawn. One of those is the number 52 Easyway service from Bridgend to Broadlands which operates during the day from Monday to Saturday. Broadlands residents will now need to travel on the alternative bus services which run along Park Street.

The second service to have its funding withdrawn is the number 73 Pyle to Fforddygyfraith which runs on Tuesdays and Fridays only.

The council is also withdrawing the subsidies it pays towards the running of four other partly funded bus routes, but it has not been confirmed yet what actions the commercial operators will now take regarding those particular routes. The routes which will be affected to varying degrees are the number 81 – Bridgend to Pen-y-Fai via Brackla and Coity (Easyway), number 68/69 – Bridgend to Cefn Glas (First Cymru), number 63B – Bridgend to Porthcawl (First Cymru), and number 62 – Bridgend to Pencoed (First Cymru).

Councillor Young added: “From the consultation it was clear that the majority of respondents were concerned about the potential loss of local bus services. However, during 2017/18 the council spent more than £699,193 supporting bus services and that wouldn’t otherwise be commercially viable as well as funding community transport.

“As we continue to tackle multi-million-pound shortfalls in the amount of funding we receive, our total budget for subsidising bus services and community transport has dropped to £524,825 for 2018/19.

“Clearly, this isn’t a situation that we would like to be in, but it is the harsh reality that the previous level of funding simply cannot be maintained.

“We therefore wanted to look at the consequences of withdrawing the subsidies on certain routes, and have gathered local residents’ views on possible travel alternatives that may be available to them, such as the community transport scheme.”

The ‘Supported bus services’ public consultation took place between January 2018 and March 2018. If you have any queries about bus services, please call the council’s Public Transport Officer Kevin Sales on 01656 642591 or email kevin.sales@bridgend.gov.uk.