FROME town councillors will meet next Wednesday to discuss whether the council should offer to contribute to saving the 267 bus – the town’s last remaining evening service.
The Town Matters committee will hold a public meeting on Wednesday 22nd February at 7pm at Frome Medical Practice to decide whether to support funding the service, and to what extent. The issue became a hot topic with local campaigners when it was revealed that Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) could stop funding the service, leaving Frome without a bus out of town after 5.48pm from Monday to Thursday.
BANES recently decided to reduce its subsidy, meaning the bus could stop running if other local councils do not pick up the cost. Frome is the second biggest authority that uses the service.
Mayor of Frome, councillor Toby Eliot, has said in the past he does not support paying for the bus because the town doesn’t have the money to pick up after other councils that drop their funding.
When she heard that the council was inclined to not pay for the service, leader of Frome and Villages Bus Users Group (FAVBUG), Tracey Harding, said she was ‘disgusted’ by the council’s attitude and said it was ‘out of touch’ with people who rely on the bus.
Somerset County Council, Norton St Philip Parish Council and Rode Parish Council have all pledged to contribute to keep the service running until September, and to work together to find a ‘sustainable’ way forward. Frome’s Town Matters committee is expected to decide next week on whether to recommend that the council pays anything at all, and if so, how much.