Village bypassed by bus service

Villagers are facing a three-hour round-trip to Newark after changes to a bus timetable.

Premiere’s 56b service, which takes passengers from Aslockton to Newark in about 50 minutes, will stop from Sunday.

The chairman of Aslockton Parish Council, Mrs Norma Broomham, said residents would feel the loss of the service as they now faced a much longer and complicated journey.

“We have gone from two buses every hour going to Newark to none,” she said.

“Many of our elderly residents go to Newark for shopping, hospital visits, the opticians or to do their banking — often they are widows with no other means of transport.

“We want to highlight the issue so that it may be reviewed.

“The 56 bus has been redirected to Scarrington, which is only three miles up the road. Why can’t it come through our village?”

Aslockton residents can still travel to Newark by catching the 55 bus to Bingham and changing for the 54, which takes one hour and 35 minutes each way and includes a 15-minute wait in Bingham.

“Even if we could have the service only a few days a week that would be better than nothing,” Mrs Broomham said.

“We understand cuts need to be made if a service is underused, but people still need to be able to travel comfortably.”

Other changes from Sunday include the end of the 57 bus linking east and west Bingham.

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire County Council, which subsidises the service run by Premiere, said a meeting was being arranged between the county council and Aslockton Parish Council to discuss the changes and any possible solutions.

Mr Jamie Swift, the brand manager for Premiere, said the company looked at making sure every village retained a service but they had to make changes due to budget cuts.

He said Aslockton had been quite fortunate in previously having three services, the 56b, 56 and 55, which is why it had just been left with the 55 to Bingham, its nearest town centre.

Mr Swift said the 56 had been severely underused and could not be sustained. However, Mr Swift said if passengers on the 55 bus coming into Bingham got off at the Grantham Road stop at 10am, they could cross the road ready to catch the 56 to Newark, which stopped at Grantham Road at 10.05am.