'These are really hard decisions': Pub lounge packed for fiery meeting on Shropshire bus services

Dozens of people filled a pub's lounge outraged about the decision to axe a popular park-and-ride bus service.

Councillor Teri Trickett initially set up a meeting at The Beeches pub in Bayston Hill to discuss issues with the number 27 bus that goes through the village.

However, after Shropshire Council announced that it will be withdrawing the nearby Meole Brace Park & Ride service, Councillor Trickett said that could be discussed too.

There was standing room only in the lounge on Tuesday evening (July 28) with an hour taken up to discuss the loss of the park-and-ride site.

At one point a man left the pub asking what will happen to the site, with fears raised it could be sold to housing.

Councillor Rob Wilson, the portfolio holder for transport and regeneration at Shropshire Council, who was at the meeting, reiterated that was not the case and the local authority was not under any pressure to sell the land.

Ultimately, he said, the decision “came down to which services are the most vital”, with the number 64 from Market Drayton to Shrewsbury winning.

"The officers basically came back with a shopping list - here are all the services and here are the costs," said Councillor Wilson.

"The 64 bus was being run as a commercial service with some revenue support from the Government. We have now picked up the full cost from Arriva, that comes in at about the same price as one park-and-ride service.

"I couldn't, in all conscience, suggest cutting Market Drayton off from Shrewsbury. It has no train station and no other bus service. People can disagree with me on that, I accept that, but I didn't think that was acceptable."

With 21 bus services in the county up for tender, Councillor Wilson said Shropshire Council had hard decisions to make.

If all the services were kept as they were, there would be a £1.25 million gap when a cut in government funding was taken into action, he said. And with all park-and-ride sites in Shrewsbury losing money, the local authority made the decision that the Meole Brace service would be withdrawn due to it being the lesser used of the three.

While there are 165,000 trips from Harlescott a year and 150,000 from Oxon (not taking into account journeys to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital), Meole Brace attracts 135,000.

"It is still below pre-Covid levels," said Councillor Wilson.

"There was a time where park and rides did pay for itself, but you're probably going back 15 years. The housing estate didn't help the usage. The council objected to the application for those reasons, but it was allowed to go through after appeal.

"If we announced Oxon or Harlescott was closing, we would have similar meetings - these are really hard decisions."

However, the loss of the Meole Brace service on top of the number 27 bus’s alleged unreliability has angered some, with one person saying Bayston Hill "deserves better".

Some locals believe that people won't go to the Oxon Park & Ride site instead because the car park is often full due to hospital workers using it, while traffic congestion would put them off from going to Harlescott.

Councillor Wilson was warned that people would just go to Telford instead.

"We went through all the options - what would happen if you close Harlescott or if you close Oxon or Meole," he said.

"And unfortunately, the decision we came to was it had to be Meole. That doesn't help you here, but I hope you will continue to go to Shrewsbury, it's a wonderful town. And if you don't think it's a wonderful town, then by all means go to Telford. That's your choice."

That angered some people in the room, with one woman saying she “couldn't believe” he said that.

Councillor Trickett said: "I really don't want people shouting at people, that solves absolutely nothing, and you never win an argument when you start shouting.

"What he actually said was 'I really hope you still go into Shrewsbury'. I know you're all going to say no and you'll go to Telford. And I'm really sorry.

"But we've had this conversation. Some people have come up with some really interesting ideas. We know the land has not been sold.

"But we have got some ideas, hopefully we can continue to be constructive, not giving up, using our voices. But it won't descend into shouting at each other when we lose our voice."

Councillor Wilson said: “I said 'Shrewsbury is a wonderful place, I hope you still keep going, but if you don't want to go there, that's your choice. Telford is also a lovely place'.”

He said the NHS hasn't got the funds to take on the Meole Brace site like it has at Oxon, but there is an overspill area of grass at the latter that officers are looking at due to it regularly being at capacity.

Councillor Wilson added that increasing the £2 fare at Meole wouldn't be enough to save the service, and suggested not many people would be willing to pay £5 if it went up to that amount. And while acknowledging that having electric vehicle charging points at the site would help the situation, Councillor Wilson doubted whether any revenue made would be sufficient enough.

Many people believe that poor signage has contributed to Meole Brace having the lowest usage of the three park-and-ride sites.

However, Councillor Wilson said it is poor at all the sites, with Harlescott being particularly hard to find.

In response, one person said there was full signage there, with another local saying there is no reason why signs at the entrance at Meole Brace couldn't be added.