Plans to axe a bus service for elderly people in Dundee have been criticised, amid claims homeowners are being forced to sell up to access better public transport.
The city’s three Blether Buses, which ran in the West End, Clepington and Lochee areas, were all suspended during lockdown.
Now, Dundee City Council plans to permanently scrap the service.
It was designed for people who find it difficult to use local buses, either due to routes or living far away from bus stops.
Blether Buses could be hailed from streets and will also drop off passengers where there are no official stops.
Despite plans to reinstate the service earlier this year, council bosses have now suggested axeing the buses for good, saying pre-pandemic passenger numbers were too low to justify their return.
Councillors will discuss the proposal at meeting of the City Development Committee on Monday.
Elderly people forced to move
West End resident and retired nurse Jeanetta Black, 78, said she was angry and disappointed at the news.
Mrs Black said: “This is really upsetting news.
“The majority of people who live in this area are elderly.
“I know of some of them who have sold their homes and moved because of the lack of a decent bus service in this end of town.
“We don’t have a bus service anywhere near us that can take us either into town or to the hospital.
“Since the removal of the Blether Bus I have to walk up a very steep brae to get to the nearest bus stop in Perth Road.
“Many of us are just not able to do that. It really angers me that this council don’t seem to take into consideration their elderly residents at all.”
The council said the three Blether buses had fewer than 20 daily passengers between the three of them before lockdown.
Compared to the cost of running the service, each passenger was being subsidised by £10 per return trip, according to the local authority.
‘Lifeline’
Dorothy McHugh of Dundee Pensioners’ Forum said the removal of the Blether Buses, combined with changes to the public Xplore Dundee timetable, has left elderly people stranded.
“The Blether Bus is a lifeline for some older people,” she said.
“It was withdrawn, for good reason, during the Covid pandemic – with the promise that it would be returned once numbers allowed.”
She added: “Good local bus services are vital to the wellbeing of older people in our communities.
“The impacts of social isolation are well understood and the city fathers should be considering how to add resource to mitigate these detrimental effects on older people, not cutting one of the very few services designed to improve their quality of life.”
Earlier this year the council agreed to subsidise “socially necessary but commercially uneconomic” bus services at a cost of £240,000.
West End Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson said he is “furious” previous pledges to return the service have not come to fruition.
“This would be a really bad decision for the elderly folk who rely on the service,” he said.
“There are older residents in streets in my own ward who cannot manage uphill to the main bus services.
“Now they will have nothing at all – a real disgrace.”
At Monday’s meeting, Mr Macpherson said he will oppose the proposal to axe the buses.
“At a time of COP26, it is bizarre that the council would be reducing public transport and increasing reliance on the private car – what a dreadful signal to be sending.
“The better way forward with the Blether Bus service is to consult communities on making the routes more attractive to increase usage.”
But Mark Flynn, convener of the council’s city development committee, said it would be “irresponsible and unfair” to continue subsidising the service for so few passengers.
He said: “I am disappointed this innovative way of using resources didn’t work out and nobody wants to be in a position of taking away a service that some people in our communities have been using.
“But when we have to think about all of the people in every community in the city, and other services that we have to provide, these numbers just don’t add up.
“The Balgay Blether Bus was only getting two to three users a day, and the other two while they’ve been going a bit longer, were averaging between six and eight.
“It would be irresponsible and unfair to continue paying so much money for so few people to benefit, when we could be using those resources to meet the changes in school education and the increasing number pupils accessing off-site activities and shared learning.”
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