Concern over rural transport links

A NEW report presented to the Northumberland Health and Wellbeing Board has highlighted the disparity in public transport between the county’s rural and urban areas.

The transport needs assessment detailed the vital role that public and community transport systems play in keeping Northumberland residents healthy as well providing access to jobs and socialising.

It identifies the currently available transport provision in the county, as well as the needs of the population and the gap between the two.

Public health trainee at Northumberland County Council Kaat Marynissen outlined the challenges the county faces, saying: “We try to go into more depth in the north and west because the rurality and the sparseness makes transport more of an issue in those areas. General usage of bus services have been declining for some time and are still below pre-Covid levels.

“In some rural areas we have areas of high deprivation and low car access where transport links is a bit more sparse.

“Lots of rural areas don’t have access to evening services which impacts on employment in healthcare and hospitality as well as socialising.”

The leader of the council, Coun Glen Sanderson, said the new mayor of the North East Combined Authority would need to be lobbied to provide funding for public transport in the county.

He said: “I feel we will see change and improvement in public transport.

“We need to make sure our being in the combined authority is such that this money will be spent in rural areas just as much as it is in the urban areas.”