Chronicle comment: Short-sighted decisions over cutting bus services

We highlight the axing of the 61 bus service that serves the villages south of Winchester and the reduction of the 4 route that has been serving Fulflood and Teg Down into the city centre.

The bus operator Stagecoach has dressed it up as 'improvements' to the service but try telling that to Pat Davies in Twyford and people in Teg Down who will be without their link to the city centre.

MP Danny Chambers held a pavement meeting in Weeke last week to hear more about the impact of the cuts. He  raised the vital point: “It will cost the state a heck of a lot more if people can’t live independently and at home. Buses are the most cost effective ways to get people living independently so I think its very short sighted.

“Everyone talks about getting people out of cars, you can’t do that if there is no alternative. People are more likely to use services if they are regular and convenient."

Pat Davies - unhappy at the loss of the 61 service (Image: Eve Thompson)

The root cause of the problem is the fact that Stagecoach is a commercial business with declining public subsidies in this ongoing age of austerity. Stagecoach, because of our business culture, aims to satisfy its shareholders before anything else, instead of being able to look at the big picture.

It strikes the Chronicle as bonkers that there is no joined-up thinking over this. Billions of pounds are being spent on tackling global warming and yet local decisions such as Stagecoach's are undermining that, not just in Winchester but across the UK.