The reduction in the No.2 bus service’s route has affected many residents so I, along with councillors, Sileby Parish
Council and others, have been exploring every avenue to restore some form of service. A summary follows, but please see my website for more detail.
Trent Barton, parent company of Kinch, estimate the cost of running a service to Leicester, or to Birstall Park & Ride (for a connection to Leicester), to be £180,000 – £200,000.
As the No.2 is a commercial route, this money has to come from somewhere and, while Leicestershire County Council receive £1.34 million of Government funding for concessionary bus passes, this has already been allocated elsewhere. I have, therefore, tried to find an alterna ve funding source, namely, local businesses. Some of these discussions have proved fruitful, however, there is s ll a significant funding gap so I will keep pursuing this avenue.
I have also asked Charnwood Borough Council if they can allocate future Sec on 106 monies – financial contributions from housing developers to mitigate increases in local populations to the service.
In the meantime, I would like to draw attention to Leicestershire County Council’s Demand Responsive Transport, which is a prebooked taxi or minibus service which connects those who live more than 800 metres from a bus stop to the public transport network, at bus cket prices. However, the DRT currently only takes passengers to one place, so I have contacted the Council to ask whether eligible passengers could be taken to the above locations to help residents in the shortterm.
Looking forward, I have been exploring the possibility of another bus company either rerouting their existing services to cover Barrow and Sileby or creating a new service to Leicester and I have put both of these proposals to Centrebus and Arriva and requested meetings.
If you would like further updates on this subject, or require my assistance on another issue, please do contact me.
Jane Hunt MP
