A CONCERTED campaign by a moorland community left virtually isolated by the slashing of its bus service, has forced a rethink by Devon County Council.

Villagers in Princetown were left stranded with the removal of their peak-time services when new contracts were agreed between the county council and Plymouth CityBus. They have also had to face a doubling of fares.

But at a meeting chaired by West Devon MP John Burnett last Thursday, Tim Davies, Devon County Council's transport co-ordination manager, and CityBus manager Ian Miller, agreed to renegotiate a reinstatement of the vital early morning and evening services.

Villagers called the meeting in protest at a halving of the service they had enjoyed for the last three years and a doubling of the fares.

They said they had been prevented from getting to work and their children were missing out on lessons outside of normal school times. Others said they had difficulties meeting hospital appointments and visiting elderly or sick relatives.

There was also a fear that tourists would find it increasingly difficult to visit the village which had been hard hit by the foot and mouth crisis.

Resident Heather Blake said she had previously been able to get the bus and a connection to and from her work at the Garden House in Buckland Monachorum.

'I'm now paying £50 a week in taxis to get me to and from work,' she said.

Lorraine Rudge said she had difficulty visiting her elderly parents and getting to her work at a Tavistock charity shop when she was without her car, and Pauline Rogers said she had been unable to work the last week of an employment contract and, although she had been offered a new one, could not take it up as she could no longer get to Dousland.

Mr Davies said that although central Government had increased funding for rural bus services by 28 per cent, tenders submitted by the private bus companies which now undertook to provide public transport after the last Government took it out of local authority hands, had gone up by some 35 to 40 per cent.

And he added that usage over the prior three years did not warrant the council spending that much money. Average passenger numbers, gleaned from ticketing data supplied by the previous operator, Western National, suggested as few as six or seven people were using the Tavistock service daily and only three or four the Yelverton service with its onward connections to Plymouth, he said.

Mr Davies said the tender to provide an off-peak service, with one bus and one driver, came to about the same figure previously paid, and they had settled for that.

Explaining the sudden increase in fares, he said Western National had avoided implementing a fare increase during the last contract, and that, added to this year's rise, accounted for the sudden hike in prices.

Mr Burnett called for the reinstatement of the service within the next month and for Princetown people to get together with the county council to assess other more imaginative solutions to transport problems. He set a time limit of two months for the council to have in place transport solutions to meet the needs of Princetown's residents.

Also present at the meeting were county councillor Roy Connelly — Greta Madigan was unable to attend, but sent a message — and West Devon councillor Diana Moyse.