Petition aims to re-instate Dumfries bus service to Locharbriggs and Heathhall

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A petition has been launched in a bid to re-instate buses to Locharbriggs and Heathhall. Organiser Arthur Ramsay, 72, is determined to bring services to residents after an earlier attempt failed.

He said that an approach to the council, SWestrans and Stagecoach to bring back evening bus services numbers one and two appeared to fall on deaf ears despite a previous petition attracting more than 400 signatures.

Mr Ramsay, a retired teacher, said: “I have now started a new petition at change.org and would be grateful if people sign it.

We hope to get more than 400 this time and we plan further action if we make no progress with our request for buses to town and back between 8.30pm and 11.30pm as before the pandemic.” He explained: “Before the pandemic there was a combined bus service, numbers one and two, in the evenings every 40 minutes from Dumfries town centre to the village of Locharbriggs and the suburb of Heathhall which ended at 11.40pm during the week and 12.10am at weekends. “These communities and the roads to them have a total population of 8,000 and there are newly opened and planned expansions which will take the population up over 9,000. “The service was stopped at 8.20pm during the pandemic and has never been restored. “These communities are three miles from the town centre and miles further from leisure and educational centres such as the Crichton Estate and hospital. “So if you do not own a car, or you do but you want to drink alcohol or you find it difficult to walk six miles or more, you cannot access Dumfries town centre and thereby you are being excluded from pubs, restaurants, music and arts venues, social and political meetings, and all the other cultural and social activities that make life