Campaigners hope benefactor will save Dales bus service seen on TV

CAMPAIGNERS ARE hoping a benefactor with a “social conscience and green agenda” comes forward to save a bus service which featured in a national television programme filmed in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Friends of the Dales charity said as well bringing visitors from Teesside into the Yorkshire Dales National Park’s landscapes of Upper Swaledale, the bus aids efforts to cut carbon emissions, as most visitors arrive in the National Park by car.

The Northern DalesBus 830 was filmed in real time for BBC4 in 2016 on its 40-mile journey which takes the scenic Buttertubs Pass into Swaledale, into Upper Wensleydale, calling at Bainbridge, Askrigg, and Castle Bolton in “Herriot Country” to Leyburn.

Vice-chairman Colin Speakman said the charity needs someone to come forward by the end of the month, as the service has to be registered two months in advance of starting out. Although the total needed is £6,700, he said if “just one person came along and gave us a couple of thousand pounds we could risk it”. In 2017, crowd-funding raised more than £3,300 to help run the service.

Mr Speakman said the charity had managed to raise money to cover the costs of all 14 services they run, with the exception of the 830. He claimed getting funding from West Yorkshire was easier, with support from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which provides around a quarter of funding, but it was more difficult to access support in the northern part of the area.

He said: “2.5m people live in West Yorkshire and DalesBus is part of the culture but it is a bit trickier in the north because there are less people. This area desperately needs more visitors and more support.”

Up to 30 people on a typical day use the bus, including walkers on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Path, while visitors provide vital spending in local shops, pubs and cafes.

Mr Speakman said North Yorkshire County Council had seen its funding for public transport cut by 75 per cent in the last decade to £1.5m and had to take the “awful decision” of cutting support for all Sunday services.

But he believes there should be more emphasis on funding buses given the “major environmental problem” cars bring to the Dales, with congestion and emissions.

Mr Speakman said: “National

Parks should be exemplars of excellence when it comes to managing climate change and educating people to be less reliant on cars.”

The National Park Authority gives £5,000 annually to DalesBus and has also provided £35,000 over 12 years to the 850 service from its sustainable development fund, including £950 last year.

However, that fund is not intended to provide ongoing running costs, a spokesman said.

To help with the fundraising effort, visit www.dalesbus.org/ northerndalesbus.

We need someone with a social conscience and green agenda.

Colin Speakman, vice chairman Friends of the Dales.