‘It will mortify those who live here to find they can’t go out...’
The impact of losing a vital bus service:
TELL your mother we were asking after her,” an elderly couple call out to a younger man as he gets off the Number 16 bus.
Sixties music plays softly in the background.
It’s the midday service from Bridgend to the Garw Valley, and the bus is almost full.
Sitting in the driver’s seat is Wesley, a local legend among all those who take the bus.
He knows almost every passenger by name, will drop people as close as he can to their homes – including right outside them – carries heavy shopping up their steps, and if he hasn’t seen some of his regulars for a while, he’ll even park up, get out and knock on their doors to check they’re ok - having first asked his passengers if they mind if he quickly pulls over.
Yet this will soon end. Bridgend council is cutting the subsidies it provides to local bus services. The Number 16 Easyways service to Blaengarw is one of those going.
For isolated, often deprived communities like those of the Garw Valley, which has only one road road in and finishes in a dead end at Blaengarw, it is a bitter blow. People without access to their own transport will find themselves cut off.
All is cheerful on the number 16 bus, for now. Those who use the service can’t praise Wesley enough saying he cheers everyone up, has a chat with them all when possible, and a laugh and a joke.
Passengers describe the bus as a little community as well as a family where everyone looks out for each other.
Blaengarw ward councillor Sorrel Dendy says the No 16 is so much more than a bus service with it playing an important social role as well.
She said: “For some of the older passengers that bus ride and those conversations on it might be the only contact they have in the day, or
week.” She gets the bus herself, and says there are regular sing-a-longs to Wesley’s choice of background music – usually a mix from the sixties and seventies, with some country and western thrown in.
Several passengers tell me they use it almost everyday and have done for years – to go shopping, see relatives, attend medical appointments or go to craft clubs in the area.
Most are in their seventies and eighties. A lady sitting in front describes the bus as “a godsend” as it saves her having to walk up a steep hill to her home with heavy shopping. Then there’s Barbara whose over 60 and has come from Llanwit Major to see her brother in the valley.
Beryl is 74 and taking the bus from Bettws to see her sister in Pontycymer.
And there’s Carl, 51, who gets on halfway round to enjoy a chat and some banter with Wesley and the other passengers.
He later tells me he’s got on the bus everyday for the last four or five years, getting off around 30 minutes later when it passes his stop again, because “it’s better than staying in the house”. Sandra who’s 77 and from Pont-y-rhyl says it’s her only form of independence.
She said: “I’m really fortunate to have my family nearby and they’re always offering me lifts but I’ve got to be independent now and then.”
In May, Bridgend County Borough Council took the “unpalatable decision” to end all subsidies for bus routes, saying it could no longer afford to fund them.
Senior officers and cabinet members said austerity was to blame and highlighted the pressures of having to make tens of millions of pounds of cuts over the coming few years on top of those already made.
They had hoped bus operators would continue to run the services albeit reduced ones if necessary, saying this had happened last year when a previous round of cuts took place.
However Easyway which runs the No.16 as well as the No 37 Maesteg Parc Estate bus route and the No 803 Danygraig Avenue to Porthcawl has said these routes are no longer feasible without the subsidies.
The No.16 bus service is now due to end on August 31, only going from Bridgend as far as Bettws from September 2.
And both the No.37 and the No. 803 will be lost altogether.
The elderly will be hardest hit often having no other form of transport.
And passengers on the No 16 are only too aware of how it will affect their valley.
Pat Hutchings who lives in Pontycymer fears it will kill it.
She said: “It will mortify those who live here to find they can’t go out and do a bit of shopping or visit friends.”
In Dan Y Mynydd, a sheltered housing complex in Blaengarw, residents said the thought of losing the local bus was like going back into the dark ages, with increasing isolation.
Philip Harris, who turns 70 in November, said: “Without the bus we won’t be able to get into the valley or out of it.
“It’s a dead end valley – there’s only one way in and out.”
Gary Jenkins, 63, and Mike Richards, 55, said they will be unable to get to the job centre anymore and fear their money will be stopped as a result.
Mr Jenkins said: “Most of the people up here go to town nearly everyday, to do shopping and meet friends.”
In Pont-y-rhyl residents said there was an alternative to the No 16 which is the First Cymru No 72 but it requires having to climb a steep hill known locally as The Stack to reach the bus stop.
While 82-year-old Dennis Rogers who still cycles up and around the hills in the area walked up The Stack without stopping to rest even once when I visited, the climb will prevent many from using the No 72. Among those is Alan Sharpe, 70, who underwent major heart surgery last year and says the climb could kill him with his heart condition.
Llangeinor ward councillor Roz Stirman says even if you could get up the hill it would be almost impossible to walk down it if you were returning with any shopping or have children in pushchairs. Residents also question their own safety when the weather turns wet and cold leaving slippery surfaces.
Cllr Stirman is trying to see if there’s a possibility of First Cymru diverting a smaller version of the No 72 into the valley communities during off-peak hours, saying it would maybe take just an additional 10 minutes to do so.
She said: “I feel so sorry for these people here because it’s the only bus that comes down this road.
“I rang a taxi firm to see how much it would cost to go from Pont-y-rhyl to the surgery, two miles away, and I was quoted £17 because they’ve got to come out from Bridgend to pick you up.
“If three or four times a day, a small bus could be diverted from the main road around here these people would still have a bus service.”
Back on the bus, I tell Wesley his passengers all say he’s amazing in the way he looks after them.
He grins, and replies: “I am, I do spoil them.
“Some of them have got a bus stop right outside their house.
“I love doing it, I love the job – it’s all about the people and the route.”
While Wesley’s been driving the route since it started around eight years ago, he’s been a local bus driver for 40 years, having been inspired by his uncle who was one.
He said: “When I started on this route there was hardly anybody going on here.
“I started building it up and over the years it has really picked up.
“That’s what I will miss – the general public.
“For me they’re like my family, if they’re regular customers and they’re not on for weeks and weeks, I’ve got to find out what’s wrong or the neighbours will find out for me.
“When I got down when my mum died three years ago they picked me up – they’re a good inspiration for me.
“If the route disappears, it’s going to be a heck of a life-changing thing – people depend on this bus a lot, especially the elderly.
“It’s really sad to think about it.”