Back our campaign for better buses in the Blackdown Hills
If you live in the Blackdown Hills, you already know the problem. There is barely a bus to be had.
Some parishes have no scheduled bus service at all. Others get only one or two buses a week. Around 8,000 residents across the Blackdown Hills are now effectively without a usable daily bus network.
For many people, this is not just inconvenient. It affects daily life.
Older residents struggle to reach GP appointments and hospitals. Young people are cut off from jobs, college and social life. Workers without a car are locked out of employment opportunities. Local pubs, shops and village businesses lose customers and face closure.
Meanwhile Devon County Council received £10.3 million in Government funding for buses. The Blackdown Hills saw virtually none of it.
We are calling for a Fair Funding Settlement for Rural Devon Buses, money ring-fenced for villages, not just cities:
- Protect Service 20. Add evening and Sunday journeys.
- A daily weekday bus to every Blackdown parish currently stuck with a once-a-week shoppers' service.
- A Demand-Responsive Transport trial for the no-bus six.
- Proper rail integration at Honiton, Axminster, Feniton, Whimple and Taunton.
- Long-term funding for community transport (TRIP, Ring & Ride).
- A ring-fenced rural transport budget. Stop sending all of Devon's BSIP money to the cities.
A National Landscape should not be a transport desert.
Sign the petition below and help us fight for better buses across the Blackdown Hills.