End of road for under-fire Comrie bus route
Stagecoach has confirmed it will cease its service round Comrie’s Tay Avenue.
Last Thursday’s meeting of Comrie Community Council saw a capacity crowd attend to voice their objections to the stopping of the hail and ride service which has only been in place since April.
There was standing room only as around 80 residents in support of the route and six against aired their views to Stagecoach’s representative Scott Hall.
The service is due to stop on August 13. Mr Hall told those present that the bus company would normally review such a service every six months but because of the substantial campaign of negative feedback the service will cease before then.
Top of the list of concerns of those protesting are safety issues in the residential street.
One resident pointed out that when the bus service was introduced to Barrack Road 18 years ago, residents in the street were not happy about double deckers going past their doors but they now accept it. She said:“We don’t have to like it but we should applaud it. It serves a purpose.”
Others emphasised that the Tay Avenue buses were giving older members of the community independence with one saying it would be“outrageous that it will be snatched away from them.”
Another claimed they felt intimidated by those who didn’t want the buses, with one lady stating:“I would be trapped in my own home again if the bus goes.”
Former outreach worker Mairi Philp appealed to Mr Hall to look at the situation in an“optimistic”way and asked him to take back to Stagecoach all the emails, phone calls and letters with a view to keeping the bus.
She said:“Everyone who lives a long life will depend on a bus eventually. I know what isolation can do. We all need to be able to get out - even if just down to the village.”
Comrie Community Council secretary Andrew Thomson told the Stagecoach rep that they were disappointed there had been no correspondence with the community council to say the service was to start in the first place and there were musings that the divide in the village could have been avoided if there had been more consultation.
Those against the buses said they would like a compromise that would see a transport system using smaller vehicles that could benefit the whole of the village and not just Tay Avenue.
Perth and Kinross Councillors Rhona Brock and Stewart Donaldson were also present. They said they had also not been informed of the new route and stated they could help look into alternatives. Mrs Brock said:“I am more than happy - if people want the service to go further - to seek funding.
“I’ve spoken to Scott [Hall] and could look into something like the Crieff Town Bus. “But it is up to the community.” Commercial director Douglas Robertson confirmed on Monday that the Tay Avenue service would be stopping.
He said that as per Stagecoach’s previous statements, the service can only operate with the support of all of the community.
He commented:“We continue to receive very strong views in both support and against the routing of the service via Tay Avenue and as such our position remains that discontinuing the Tay Avenue loop, whilst regrettable, remains the only course of action open to us.”