A determined group of Scone residents appear to have forced transport giant Stagecoach into a change of heart.
Bosses had made controversial changes to the route of the number 7 bus which serves the community but after local protest they have agreed to discuss amendments.
The busy service was withdrawn from stops at the Scone park-and-ride facility and nearby streets earlier this year.
Elderly residents said the reduced number of stops left them “virtually housebound”, while young families said they had to walk further and students said they struggled to attend college on time.
Those concerns brought dozens of people to a highly-charged meeting at the Robert Douglas Memorial Institute (RDM) Institute in August, where they hit out at the changes.
That signalled to Stagecoach the depth of feeling surrounding the changes to the service and senior staff have since been reviewing their options.
The company said the alterations imposed had been made to “maintain the reliability of the service”, given its experience of traffic congestion along parts of the route, as well as the low use of the park-and-ride.
After attending a meeting with local councillors at the start of the month, however, Stagecoach is considering changes to the timetable to alleviate the concerns.
It will unveil its proposals at a meeting of Scone Community Council at 7.30pm on Monday in the RDM Memorial Institute.
The meeting will hear from Stagecoach East Scotland managing director Andrew Jarvis, who will present the revised route and take questions.
Mark Whitelocks, operations director with Stagecoach East Scotland, said: “We were glad of the opportunity to sit down and discuss the concerns over the route of service 7 with local councillors.
“We are constantly monitoring our services to ensure they are operating both reliably and to benefit the majority of passengers or, indeed, potential users of our services.
“A number of concerns were raised regarding access to certain local amenities in Scone, as well as the section of Angus Road no longer served by route 7.”
Stagecoach is now proposing to operate the service around Spoutwells Drive, Oakdene Road, Sandy Road, Abbey Road and Mansfield Road as a two-way loop operating alternately as route 7 and 7A without affecting the running times of the overall route.
Mr Whitelocks said that, “regretfully”, journey times did not offer the opportunity to extend service 7 up the Angus Road.
However, service 57 will continue to provide a 30-minute frequency between the park-and-ride and Perth during the day, Monday to Friday, he added.
The claim may result in some tough questions for Stagecoach bosses at the meeting as locals have noted that the buses idle at a number of stops for minutes at a time along the route and they believe there is ample time to extend the route to take in Angus Road.
Local councillor Lewis Simpson said he had been impressed by the efforts of local people to secure a better service for the community.
He said the two-way loop was something he had been working to see introduced for 10 years but remains convinced that improvements can still be made to the proposals.
“The support of local residents has greatly assisted me in my meetings with Stagecoach management,” he said.
“I have told them that Scone needs the reintroduction of the two-way loop around the village and that the north of the village and the park-and-ride need to be included.”
Mr Simpson urged all interested parties to attend the community council meeting and express their views.
Changes to the service would not come into force until late October.