A VILLAGE bus service is to be scrapped next month due to rising costs, low passenger numbers and a shortage of drivers.

The bus service from Moresby Parks to Whitehaven is one of four services to be withdrawn by Workington-based bus operator, Hobans.

The company says the service from Moresby Parks to Whitehaven and a service running from Seascale, Egremont, St Bees and Whitehaven, are no longer viable.

Services running from Allonby to Workington and Pica to Workington, are also being scrapped.

Alison Burgess, transport manager at Hobans, said: “It’s not cost-effective at all. Moresby is more used than the rest, but you can often count on one hand the number of people who use it.

“When you’re paying a driver and using fuel, it’s certainly not cost-effective. There are other services where we never get a passenger but we still have to run it.

“I appreciate that people were trying to support the Moresby service as best as they could but we only get 58 per cent of the ticket paid, when it’s all concessionary passengers.

“It’s costing a lot of money and the industry is suffering with driver shortages. We are struggling to cover what we’ve got.”

Graham Minshaw, who represents Moresby on Copeland Council, said the village had already lost a number of community services and should not suffer further cuts.

He said: “I feel this is important as despite being on the edge of Whitehaven and having a large population, the village is cut off for those who have no access to their own transport.

“The current bus route and service although far, far from ideal was used frequently and had become a popular routine for those who used it. We all had hoped it would demonstrate a need that would be met with a growing and more frequent service.

“Losing it removes an environmentally good transport method and a low cost option. While the current government’s £2 fare scheme is a good one it is no use without bus routes to use it and shows up the folly of successive Conservative governments who have cut funding to local councils to subsidise rural routes and their destruction of a publicly owned system in the 1980s.

“There is a clear mixed message here that demonstrates the need for a new direction from Westminster to properly fund local government.

“Moresby Parks, like many rural communities everywhere has lost numerous community services already - it badly needs these replaced and not suffer further cuts.”

Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “As a council, we’re always incredibly disappointed when bus routes have to be withdrawn – particularly those routes which serve the hardest to reach communities in Cumbria.

“However, bus routes in Cumbria are managed and run on a commercial basis by transport providers and certain routes can cease to be financially viable – usually due to reduced demand or increasing costs. 

“In previous years, the county council may have been able to step in to offer a subsidy to maintain a route but this is no longer possible as council budgets nationwide are reduced.”

The Moresby Parks to Whitehaven bus service will cease operation from March 29.

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