Bury St Edmunds and Diss 'critical' bus services saved just in time after group wins £150k Suffolk County Council bid

'Critical' bus services connecting rural communities have been saved after a group won a bid for nearly £150,000 from the county council.

On Friday last week, the Save Our Buses group, spearheaded by Bardwell Parish Council, won a £147,000 bid to save two key bus routes connecting several villages between Diss to Bury St Edmunds, the 73 and 73A.

Both routes, managed by Simonds Buses, were due to be axed by the end of the month due to not being financially viable.

Karen Witton, Bardwell PC vice chairwoman, said although the potential axing was filling many within the nearby villages with horror, she was delighted the bid was successful.

"It was challenging to start with because most people want to scream and shout and say it's not fair, and it isn't but, at the end of the day, that does not get us a bus service.," she added.

"So much work went into [the bids] because we know it'd be competitive, we knew there was a limited amount of money available but we knew how critical it was."

The group is made up of representatives from the affected villages, including Bardwell, Ixworth, and Barningham, and attracted the attention and support of town, district, and county councillors as well as Waveney Valley MP, Adrian Ramsay.

Ms Witton said the time between submitting the bid halfway through November and receiving the final response was 'heart-thumbing' and could've impacted thousands of people.

In early October, there were reports of children who struggled to get to school on time being given detention and black marks.

Ms Witton added: "To some people, it's the difference between having a job and not having a job, to some it's the difference of whether their child can get to school on a reliable basis and, to others, it's a case of being isolated.

"One of the things I would say is everyone is going to need a bus at some time in their lives."

Despite the success, she stressed the money would only keep the buses running for one year, with a potential second in the future, meaning the group's focus would be on making the services commercially viable.

On Friday, members discussed potential ways to make sure the buses kept running past the funding deadline, which could include advertising, business support and tweaking routes.

Ms Witton said: "It's great news and we are delighted, but the work still goes on because this is a temporary stay — our plan has always been to make these buses financially sustainable."

The group said it would monitor bus service performance through data from the company to ensure maximum use.

Speaking on the bid's success, Peter Nathanail, managing director at Transport Made Simple, the company behind Simonds Buses, said he was delighted with the result and commended the group for being 'the best organised, committed and most effective' he had worked with.

He added: "I want to highlight the hard work and dedication of the Save Our Buses campaign [for] their approach to engaging with us and the local community to design a bus service which truly meets local needs has been the driving force behind this successful funding bid.

"We are looking forward to continuing to deliver a high-quality bus service to residents of West Suffolk."