HEATON residents have pleaded with transport bosses to reverse cuts to a bus service they say is vital for their community.

But they were told by transport bosses that passenger levels were too low to continue a half hourly service.

The Lister Community Action Group has been opposing a recent shake up of bus services in the area, which has seen the 680 bus go from being a half hourly service to an hourly one.

Members of the group visited City Hall to attend a meeting of West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Bradford District Consultation Sub-Committee on Monday and to raise their concerns about the cuts. Many were holding signs calling for the more regular service to return.

Jenny Gibson, one of the protesters, said: “This is the latest in a long line of tweaks and changes that have chipped away at a service many of us rely on. We are extremely disappointed and angry at this latest attack on our service.

“The reduction of weekday provision to one bus an hour will have an adverse effect on residents, as there is no alternative service to get to Bradford. Some areas of Heaton don’t have any bus service. Many of the people who use this service are elderly or have mobility problems.”

She pointed out that these people would have to walk up a steep hill, that would take a “fit person” 10 minutes to walk up, to get to another bus route. Mrs Gibson added: “It will be very difficult to make medical appointments based around an hourly service. There will also be a big impact on people who use this bus to get to work. If people want to get to Bradford before 9am they will have to get either the 6.38am bus or the 7.58am bus.

“These changes will lead to social isolation and loneliness.”

Councillor Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) said: “There are a lot of young people in the area who go to university or college in the city centre who will miss lectures because of these changes.

“As a council we are trying to encourage people to use public transport, but then services are being withdrawn. We can’t have it both ways. We need to work together and improve things, because changes like this can really impact people’s lives.”

Brandon Jones, Head of External Relations at First Bus, said: “In this case the changes were necessary because of passenger levels. We have to look by demand, and the 680 didn’t warrant a half hourly service. We are committed to growing passenger levels in Bradford, but that does have to reflect service levels, otherwise we wouldn’t have a sustainable network going forward.”

He said First Bus would be happy to speak to those affected by the changes to see what could be done to help mitigate the problems.

Mr Jones added: “We want to continue conversations about our service and grow our network, but we have to do that in a way that is sustainable.”

Neale Wallace, Head of Transport Operations at West Yorkshire Combined Authority, told the protesters the authority provides funding to subsidise bus routes, but with reducing budgets they had to focus on services to isolated areas, and not increasing frequency of existing routes.