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| Bury Free Press, 13 December 2004 |
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| A meeting has been planned to discuss the state of Bury St Edmunds' town centre bus service – but residents will have to walk home as buses stop at 6.30pm. |
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| Organised by the town council, which has been inundated with complaints about First's services since a change in routes, the meeting will let Bury residents speak face-to-face with the company's boss and council figures. |
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| It is timed to fit around MPs and councillors' working hours, starting at 6.30pm, but this has only highlighted the lack of evening buses. |
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| The last bus from Bury to Mildenhall Road Estate and the hospital runs at 6.26pm and the last bus to Moreton Hall is at 5.46pm |
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| Town council clerk Linda Sherer said: "We have had so many complaints from the town's residents and from workers here that we felt we had to hold a meeting to let people have their say with those responsible present." |
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| She said First boss John Pope had been invited, as well as MP David Ruffley, Town Mayor Frank Warby, county, borough and town councillors. |
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| Mr Pope said he would attend but he was not happy about |
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| the timing of the meeting as people would have trouble getting home. |
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| He also said that the full fleet of low-floored buses, some of which had been off the road due to mechanical failure, should be back on Bury streets soon but could not say when they would all be operating. |
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| Cllr Alan Turner, who will also |
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| be at the meeting, has been swamped with letters complaining about the buses. |
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| He said he would be helping residents from Mildenhall Road Estate home from the meeting with the help of the residents' association but added the absence of late buses was a problem, affecting hospital visits. |
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| Cllr Turner said: "You can now get up to the hospital at a decent time but you cannot get home." |
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| Complaints sent to the traffic commissioner are currently being monitored and if they reach a specified level, officers will be sent to check on buses. |
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| If they are still unsatisfactory – more than one minute early or five minutes late – a report will be sent to the commissioner and the operator. |
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| If the operator does not improve, the commissioner can cut-back buses licensed to the operator or close them down. |
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| The meeting will be held at the Corn Exchange between 6.30pm and 8pm on Friday, October 1. |
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