Axing service will mean no buses at all

I live in Weston and will try and explain my anxiety regarding planned changes to the 20B bus service.

I am very concerned about the already implemented route change on this service and the threat to remove it altogether. Even before any crises all bus routes headed for Dorchester Street with no thought that passengers might wish to travel between other areas around the city. The number 20s were the only circular route. The 20A anticlockwise served (from Weston High Street) Penn Hill Estate, Twerton, Whiteway, Southdown, Combe Down to the university. The clockwise 20C departed the university travelling via Ralph Allen Drive, Widcombe, Manvers Street, Guildhall, Broad Street, Lansdown Road, Julian Road, Cranwells Park, Weston Park, and Weston High Street.

The first implemented change was to dispense with the A/C definitions so passengers at Weston have no idea which bus they are getting on. The second already implemented change was to the original 20C route, which now avoids Weston High Street altogether. The High Street is by definition the most highly populated area of Weston. It has five blocks of flats/maisonettes and flats over all of the shops in both the old and new segments of it. Three of these are retirement facilities, one of which has 55 units alone. The axing of this service leaves the Penn Hill Estate, Cranwells, Weston Park and Julian Road with no service at all. There will be no access to Milsom and George Streets from the northwestern areas of Bath. No wonder, then, they are in trouble. It would appear that all shoppers must go to Southgate whether they want to or not!

If the city wants people out of their cars, eradicating bus routes is not the way to do it. Cycling is good and healthy but to do so safely is costly and not much good in the rain! Bikes are also pretty useless if you have children, pushchairs, any kind of luggage or are elderly and arthritic, to which category I belong.

Sheila Kinsella Bath