New Buses for Grove and Wantage

12.00.00am GMT Sat 5th Feb 2005

Local County councillors are rejoicing that their views have been listened to and that Stagecoach will be introducing a new express service from Wantage/Grove into Oxford on a half hourly regular daytime service. The new X30 service will begin on March 26th and will meet the increasing need for good regular public transport from Grove and Wantage into the city of Oxford. The evening service is also to be increased to hourly instead of two hourly which is another welcome change to what has recently been a very poor provision. Also, modern low rider buses will be used, making it easier for older and disabled people to use. The service will use a previous popular route along the A420 into Oxford along the Botley Road including the rail station.

County Councillor Zoé Patrick has been working for a long time with Stagecoach, public transport officers at the County council and Grove Parish Council with a series of regular meetings to try to push priorities on bus routes to serve local residents. Much of Cllr. Patrick's casework surgery has been devoted to dealing with complaints about the poor local services. One case which was highlighted some years ago, was when a local youngster lost his job at Milton Park due to the poor bus service and his petition to council made television coverage.

Recently, Zoé Patrick has been dealing with other similar cases, and decided to take matters into her own hands and proposed a motion at Oxfordshire County Council to ensure the matter was considered a priority. This motion, seconded by Cllr. Jim Moley, meant that the situation needed a serious review. As a result, the Transport Implementation Committee heard a report on this last Thursday.

Both councillors spoke at the meeting, and Cllr Patrick said, "I am delighted to report that Stagecoach have now agreed to provide a much improved service for local residents of Grove and Wantage, which goes a long way to help towards better public transport. We have also tried make things better for commuters to Milton Park and Harwell. However, this is a subsidised route which already has many thousands of pounds from the County so we can only do so much."

Cllr Jim Moley said in a supporting statement, "Recent surveys indicate that Grove is a dormitory community. Most travel to work north and east, split more or less equally. Poor service caused suppressed demand for public transport, as workers bought cars in desperation and jobs were lost by those who could not."

Cllr Moley was particularly concerned that Health Authorities consistently ignored that poor public transport access to community hospitals was never considered in the determination to close Wantage Hospital.

Both councillors hoped that residents would support these new local services and thus ensure they are given a long term future. The message must be "Please use it or lose it!" Zoé Patrick says, "I am looking forward to making use of these services personally, and hope that other residents will follow suit. There will be a further report in the Autumn and so we shall watch carefully how it all works. I am sure most people will appreciate easier access into Oxford including the rail station"

Note for editors: Please see Stagecoach website link below & other contacts:

Stagecoach Manager Simon Mathieson was involved with preliminary discussions, as was David Taylor from OCC (public transport), Keith Clarke (Chair of Env. Services, Grove Parish Council)

Tel contact: Cllr Zoé Patrick (01235 768809) Cllr Jim Moley (01235 763301)

Related Link:

Stagecoach website.