Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has welcomed news that a bus service serving his constituents in Llandegla, Denbighshire, which was scrapped earlier this year, is to be reinstated.
Residents were up in arms earlier this year when Arriva announced that they would no longer be serving the village of Llandegla after reviewing its timetable and service provision in North Wales due to the new speed limits introduced by the Labour Welsh Government.
Darren, along with local Cllr Terry Mendies, raised it with the former First Minister during his visit to rural Denbighshire.
In the Senedd chamber, Darren also called on the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister with responsibility for transport to make a statement on “the action he is taking to address the adverse impact of the reduction in the default speed limit in built up areas from 30mph to 20mph on bus services”.
He was therefore pleased when Denbighshire County Council announced it had approval from all North Wales authorities to use a portion of this year’s Bus Transition Funding to assist with the change made to this service.
Arriva agreed that they could operate the first and last journey of the X51 in and out of Llandegla, and Denbighshire Council provided a temporary minibus to run the timetable in between.
This week, Darren has been notified that the Zenith minibus covering Llandegla village has been extended until the 29th June, after which it will then cease.
After this time, following a regional wide tendering process, from Monday 1st July 2024, he has been told that Llandegla will be reinstated as part of the X51 bus service, with the bus entering the village as it had previously.
Commenting, Darren said:
“This is absolutely fantastic news, and I am thrilled that the genuine concerns that I raised on behalf of residents have been fully considered and that this service will now continue indefinitely as a result.
“Residents have been extremely concerned about the future of this service. Whilst they were pleased with the temporary minibus service, they were aware that this would inevitably come to an end and were worried they would once again be left stranded.
“They will therefore very much welcome news that a permanent solution has been found and that the bus service for the village has been safeguarded.
“I thank everyone involved in securing this positive outcome and look forward to seeing the service operating once again.”
