Residents of West Lothian rallied together to protest over local bus service cuts they blame for leaving them "stranded".
Scores gathered outside the Civic Centre in Livingston on Tuesday April 25 in frustration after McGill's announced they were cutting their bus service.
As well as removing a Sunday service, early morning and late evenings were also set for the axe as the bus operator argued insufficient people use those services.
If they go ahead, cut will mean villages outside of Livingston face being cut off completely with no bus link running through from May 8.
This comes as the bus service has been criticised for its unreliability due to short notice cancellations. McGill's CEO Ralph Roberts said on Tuesday to the crowd that McGill's were "not proud of the service" that is currently running.
Residents from all around West Lothian, including Livingston, Armadale and Blackridge, stood out in anger holding signs. This came as West Lothian Council discussed a potential 'lifeline' to the 'forgotten' communities.
Heather Jones, 59, from Deans South area of Livingston, told Edinburgh Live how the bus service and cuts are 'flooring' her mental health.
She said: "We are totally stranded. I can't see my daughter. Can't get to the shops. My depression has hit the floor. I've got asthma, arthritis and other issues and now I have to walk up to the top of hill. It's okay if you're young, but I'm not. I can't get anywhere."
Mae, 70, said: "You can't get out to do your shopping because you can't take it all back. I go everyday now to get bits and bobs through the week but that walk is hard, I can't always manage it. I won't be able to see my grandchildren when the bus is cancelled on Sundays, they stop in the early evenings. I've missed 13 doctor appointments because the bus just doesn't show up. People's mental health is out the window."
Mary Keddie came to Livingston from Broxburn to the event. She told how she visits her brother in St John's Hospital every day. She relies on the bus with a walker to assist her.
She said: "I can see him every day apart from Sundays. On Monday (yesterday) I got on the 600, which usually goes to St John's, but the driver told me he was only going to Deer Park.
"We need proper transport. Even transport to get us to Livingston for messages and to see other people. You just need to look around and you can see how sick people are of it."
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Devon Weir said he is concerned about his studies. Along with his mum, Emma, he relies on buses to get them to college and work.
Devon, who studies childhood practice at West Lothian College has to get through from Armadale to Livingston. The X25 bus, that goes to Edinburgh, takes an hour. However, the student explained how if the bus doesn't show up, he has to get two buses and can take him around three hours to get home.
Under its plans, McGill's confirmed that the X25 will be renamed the 25 and will no longer serve Blackridge. Devon said: "Some people in my class will be stuck and you need 80 per cent to pass to get into the HNC."
Following the protest, The Council Executive has today agreed to award a subsidised contract LBS 10 to McGill’s Eastern Scottish to extend the 21 service to provide a connection between Blackridge and Bathgate via Armadale.
The Council Executive has also agreed a contribution to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to reinstate a bus service linking Whitburn with the Shotts area, which will provide a connection for residents in Greenrigg.
A representative for McGill's said on Tuesday: "We have a reputation around other parts of Scotland where we provide a reliable service, and we want to do that here in West Lothian. We know it's greatly under par. At the moment with the current shortage of drivers and financial situation, it simply makes it unsustainable.
"We understand how radical it is to take services off, in the evenings and on Sundays. What we want to do is build back from a strong foundation. To do this, we unfortunately need to make cuts. From May 8, we will run 100 per cent of our miles, we will run a much more reliable service to give us time to improve the pipeline of drivers coming through, and then build the services back. So this is a temporary situation - how long, is dependent on other situations."
The decisions come after a tense month where tempers have frayed and public anger has played out across social media.
And ahead of the meeting around 70 people gathered outside the Civic Centre in Livingston to protest the cutbacks.
Half a dozen McGill’s representatives, including its Chief Executive, Ralph Roberts, met with protesters to hear their concerns. They were blunt about the unsustainable nature of many of the services they had taken on when they secured contracts that had been held by First Bus.
While not a member of the Executive, local Independent councillor for Blackridge, Stuart Borrowman was given permission to join the committee for the debate.
After the meeting he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It’s a relief that the council has been able to respond in an agile manner to ensure that Blackridge isn’t cut off and that Armadale has a stronger service than it otherwise would.
“The lack of early and late and Sunday services remains a big concern, especially for workers with anti-social hours on modest incomes.
“If bus companies say there just aren’t the drivers to work at these times then there needs to be a look at wage levels, incentives and training and recruitment
“We can’t say working for a living is best, then make it impossible for some people to do that.”
Councillor Robert De Bold raised an amendment calling on the council to tender for additional services to cover all reduced or cut services funded by the council’s emergency reserves .
The SNP also called for a cross party group to include community groups to “fully understand the impacts of the loss of services to communities with the remit to: Determine a strategy for these services to be maintained and investigate proposals for community transport as a long-term solution.”
Councillor De Bold later claimed a partial victory and praised protesters. He told the LDRS: “The administration has buckled to popular pressure and the hundreds that protested outside today’s meeting by proposing a partial replacement of bus services. I welcome their U-turn.
“We in the SNP group accepted these proposals; however, they do not go far enough and are not a like-for-like replacement – many workers still cannot get to or from work on time, many communities are more poorly served, and many Sunday services simply no longer exist. "
“However, I know for sure that we would not have achieved the partial replacement of services had it not been for the huge public outcry. I would like to thank all those who attended today to let the administration know that doing nothing was not acceptable.”
The Labour motion from Councillor Tom Conn criticised the SNP stance, highlighting the party’s own budget proposals in February to slash public transport subsidies by 50%.
Pre-budget council officers had suggested that ending public transport subsidies was one option for councillors to consider.
In contrast, said Councillor Conn, Labour had rejected officer proposals and “fully restored the budget of £1,950,000 plus indexation of of £256,000.” for the year.
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