Village with new £16,000 bus shelters loses routes

A village that invested £16,00 into new bus shelters will only see them being used by school buses after its other routes have been cut.

People living in Kirtling, Cambridgeshire, were served by the 47 and 902 bus routes that took them from the village to Newmarket, Suffolk, but the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) passed a recommendation to cut the routes.

The decision was part of a bus service shake-up that could see 31 routes changed across Cambridgeshire.

Jonny Edge, a Liberal Democrat on Cambridgeshire County Council, said communities south of Newmarket were concerned the proposed routes "do not fully reflect the destinations" they needed to reach.

The two bus shelters were installed in Kirtling in east Cambridgeshire in July, after Kirtling and Upend Parish Council secured funding for the project.

The changes to buses affecting east Cambridgeshire including Kirtling are estimated to come into effect from August 2027, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Edge, who represents Woodditton, submitted a written question to a meeting of the CPCA.

The authority previously said there was an average of only 0.5 users per trip in Kirtling during September, October and November last year.

Edge's question was read by a council officer and said: "There are also some communities losing services with no apparent remedy.

"Kirtling as an example has just invested £16,000 for new bus shelters; the buses serving them will now be limited to the school bus to Bottisham."

Paul Bristow, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said the authority had undertaken an "extensive consultation" on the changes but would "continue to listen to feedback".

A CPCA report detailing the service changes said the number of passengers on buses through villages including Kirtling were "very low".

Two to four buses pass through every day except Sundays with the 47 bus costing £22.17 per passenger and the 902 costing £19.15.

Bristow said bus franchising was an enormous undertaking – and they are the first rural area to implement it with a limited budget.

He said that a number of communities would see their services change in a "positive way as well".

He added: "There is a lot of, believe it or not, government attention on us doing this and doing it well on a limited budget because if it doesn't work here, it won't work anywhere else.

"Despite the fact it does keep me slightly awake at night worrying about how we do this I'm also genuinely excited for the opportunity to do it.

"Those of you who've known me longer than the term I've had this job will know that if I'm going to do something – I try to do it properly."

Do you have a story suggestion for Cambridgeshire? Contact us below.

Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.