David Laws MP Welcomes Reprieve For Merriott School Bus Service

David Laws, MP for Yeovil Constituency, has welcomed the policy reversal by Somerset County Council, which has today decided to maintain bus transport for the school children of Merriott.  The Conservative County Council had been considering stopping the service, which would have resulted in children having to walk along dangerous roads to get to school.

Written confirmation was given today by the County Council that the route will continue to be deemed ‘unsafe’, thereby obliging the Council to continue to provide arrangements to get children to school safely, rather than axe the bus service as it had been considering.  The Council had attempted to withdraw the service once before in 2011, but then has today backed down in the face of widespread public opposition.

Commenting, Mr. Laws said:

“Last year the County Council came up with a bizarre plan that would have had young children walking down narrow country lanes and then down a busy A-road – in both cases without any pavements. Then, more recently, there were plans to get children to use another route which was judged too dangerous to walk years ago, when it was far less busy than it is today.

 “There has never been a good, safe, case for changing the rules, and I hope the Conservatives at County Hall have finally accepted this.  I congratulate the local Councillor Paul Maxwell, for all his hard work to protect the service.

“Now that the Council has seen the light on this issue, I’ll be keeping up the pressure to make them change course on proposed cuts to other bus services in our area.”

Category: MP Press Releases