CAMPAIGNERS trying to save school buses around Yelverton are this week celebrating a partial victory.

The afternoon bus service from St Andrew's Primary School in Buckland Monachorum to Yelverton will be run as a public service after the October half term so that any children can use it as well as those eligible for free school transport — in other words, those who live beyond two miles from their designated primary school.

A service has also been reinstated in the morning to take children to Buckland school.

Parents in the Yelverton area were up in arms when Devon County Council withdrew bus subsidies, saying it spelt the end of the primary school transport system.

More than 20 children a day used the 8.30am service from Yelverton to Buckland and the return journey which was very useful for working parents.

It also meant less congestion on the narrow roads approaching the village and around the school from private cars.

But the county council resolved back in April that non-entitled school travel was a category no longer to be subsidised through public buses. The authority saved £1.35-million by making these cuts.

Parent Susanne Martin said this week she was delighted that Devon county had listened to concerns of villagers and in particular praised Damien Jones from the school transport department.

'They have kept talking to us and now we have a positive outcome so it's great news,' she said.

'Our children will have to pay for transport but that's fine. We just did not want to lose the bus.

'Now we have to see if we can do something for the children who go to Meavy and Walkhampton schools.'

County councillor for the Yelverton area Philip Sanders said he was very concerned of the effect the withdrawal of some of the subsidised bus services was having on a significant number of parents in the Buckland area.

'We have all been working very hard with Devon county to restore a reasonable level of service and I am very pleased we have managed to make some progress,' he said.

'The road network gets congested in the village and anything that can be done to remove private vehicles is a bonus.

'However we still have a problem with transport to Meavy and Walkhampton schools and there is some way to go there yet because it is not as easily solved.'

A spokesperson for Devon County Council said: 'A number of services which had previously been supported by the county council have continued on a commercial basis, and we have helped in the arrangement of a commercial service by Beacon Coaches which will operate from St Andrew's Primary School, Buckland Monachorum to Yelverton.'