New bus service left many villagers feeling frustrated
A NEW bus service came under fire in 1979 as villagers felt they were being short-changed.
After several weeks of criticism, the new Midland Red Lancer bus service came in for more scrutiny, this time from Blackfordby residents.
Bus users in Barton-underNeedwood had already organised a petition against the new service before a Blackfordby resident wrote to the Traffic Commissioners in protest against the new Lancer service there.
Blackfordby resident Mrs Iris Lay said: “We used to have a regular service into the village but although there is a bus out to Burton in the morning there is no bus back.”
This meant that Mrs Lay and other passengers travelling back to Blackfordby must walk into the village from Heath Lane – a walk which residents claim takes up to half an hour. Only one bus a day travelled from Blackfordby to Burton.
A spokesman for Midland Red said: “The situation is quite simply that there are about 20 people who travel into work from Blackfordby at about the same time so consequently we have been able to provide a service for them.
“Unfortunately they come home in the evenings at different times and it is just not on to provide three or four buses for 20 passengers.”
The spokesman said it was regrettable but part of the aim of the revision of services had been to operate viable routes.
He said the only possibility for providing a bus back into the village was if all the passengers concerned could get together and arrange to come home at about the same time.
In their petition bus users in Barton called on East Staffordshire District Council to provide a bus service.
They protested about the poor evening service, buses which ran late or did not run at all and the timing of the new buses, which had made it difficult for many people to get to work on time.
Midland Red said there had been teething trouble on the Barton Service, partly due to drivers taking the wrong route through the village.
Also there had been a mistake in the new timetable which had led to confusion, but this was to be reprinted and delivered to every house in Barton.
By March 1979, a petition calling on East Staffordshire District Council to provide a bus service for Barton-under-needwood was handed in at Burton Town Hall.
The petition, signed by 700 Barton residents, was handed in by the organiser, Mrs Irene Chester, who also handed in a list of complaints about the new Midland Red Lancer bus service.