Resolve bus chaos now

Dear Editor, With regard to the article in the Observer (October 19,2018) on the latest C11/ C12 bus consultation, featuring the photograph taken in July of Cambusbarron residents, it is important to point out that this is not simply a Cambusbarron issue.

This story did not begin in July, 2018, but has been ongoing since the addition of this detour.

It started when a profitdriven bus company withdrew bus services from the area.

Stirling Council, having slashed its pubic transport budget, chose to merge these two routes without weighing up the consequences as to how it would affect the lives of residents from all the rural villages.

This is not about an extra 18 minutes journey time. It’s the fact that passengers from all these other communities can be travelling for up to an hour or more each way, often in cold, damp buses that frequently break down.

Some residents have to make additional journeys to access these services in the first place, and again, in order to get home.

Residents cannot reach areas, previously accessible, for employment and tourists cannot reach the area’s attractions using public transport.

The cost of a taxi from Stirling to these villages is prohibitive in comparison to a taxi from Stirling to Cambusbarron.

The current C11 route severely disadvantages residents from Aberfoyle, Port of Menteith, Thornhill, Gartmore, Inversnaid, Stronachlacher and Kinlochard, while the C12 affects residents from Gargunnock, Kippen, Arnprior, Buchlyvie, Balfron, Killearn, Strathblane, Fintry, Drymen and Croftamie, to the point that many have been forced to stop using these services altogether

For over two years, these residents have completed surveys, attended consultations and jumped through every hoop possible to get these routes amended.

Time and time again our hopes have been raised and then dashed. Proposals have been accepted then withdrawn or delayed.

We feel desperately let down by both the council and First Scotland East. We appreciate the budgetary restrictions to which the council has to adhere, but Stirling businesses and our communities have also lost revenue as a direct result of this detour.

Pitting communities against each other in issues as vital as public transport, especially where that involves poorly served rural communities, is fundamentally wrong.

This is not an Aberfoyle versus Cambusbarron problem and should not be portrayed as such.

This is a Stirling Council versus First Bus issue and it is imperative that it rectifies it before another winter sets in.

Valerie Brand Buchlyvie Dear Editor I was disappointed by the Stirling Council Licensing Board’s decision to turn down the application from Scottish Gantry, Stirling Arcade, for a whisky enterprise in a unit in the arcade (Observer, October 24, 2018).

In my view, the proposal would have created what could be a unique and potentially useful tourist attraction for the city.

The board’s reasoning – that this would represent an “over-provision” of licensed premises in the city centre – is not a fair or accurate categorisation for this new business proposal.

The board is missing a trick by preventing the development of a space where visitors – locals or tourists – could experience an interesting collection of high quality Scotch whiskies in relaxing and well designed surroundings.

The proposed area is currently an unused space above an underused resource, the Arcade, and could do with sensible planning use.

For too long the Arcade has been under used but the footfall potential provided by a new and interesting upstairs development, such as proposed by the Scottish Gantry, would almost certainly inject new life into this beautiful but frequently empty shopping mall.

This venture should be reconsidered at the next licensing committee meeting, if not sooner.

David Walker, Stirling