Next month bus users from Bristol and South Gloucestershire will hold a protest to demand buses are taken under public control and run as a public service by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA). This comes after 178 First bus services were scrapped last month in the West of England in addition to a further 1,450 bus journeys cancelled each week.
The campaign group has written an open letter calling on Metro Mayor, Dan Norris and all WECA group leaders to suspend the deregulated bus market and provide a franchised bus service. Currently 768 people have put their name to the letter with most of them commenting on the personal difficulties the poorly run bus service has caused them.
Laura Fogg-Rogers is among those leading the ‘Reclaim our buses’ campaign which will hold its first public demonstration in Kingswood next month . The environmental researcher and mum of two, who lives in Winterbourne, said people in her community are furious about the buses which have resulted in job losses and children getting detentions for being late.
