'˜It's isolating people': Desperate plea to reinstate village bus stops

Commuters faced hours of delays on the dual carriageway after a van collided with a bus which had stopped to pick up passengers. A man was airlifted to hospital and nine others were injured.

In response residents called for West Sussex County Council to review the safety of stops along the road, asking for pull-ins to be created or for the stops to be removed altogether.

Ashington community champion Margaret Alford BEM said it was ‘ridiculous’ one accident had forced the council to suspend the stops and was concerned after almost a year no decision had been made on their future.

“In that accident at Washington there was no fatality and for years that bus has been running and never had a problem,” she said.

“It’s just ridiculous when they have been going all these years and it just takes one little accident to close all these stops.

“I think it’s isolating people. We are very lucky we have the free bus pass that helps get the elderly people out to socialise.”

Margaret catches the bus to visit her aunt in Findon. But due to the suspensions she has been forced to walk almost a mile to get to and from the bus stop and says she is not the only one.

“Because we are British we don’t like to make a fuss,” she said.

“I should have the right to catch the bus to go shopping, to go to a show or over to the doctors.” She added she wanted the stops reinstated as soon as possible.

Four stops were initially suspended along the A24 but after further review the county council temporarily suspended all stops between Findon and Horsham and Horsham and Crawley.

In response West Sussex County Council said it had completed its safety investigation into two of the stops and was looking for funding to make improvements. A council spokesman said: “We have undertaken a feasibility study regarding two bus stops on the A24.

“This is now complete and we are in the process of identifying funding that will enable us to programme the works. “The cost of providing laybys to the stops affected would be considerable and such works would have to be prioritised against other schemes in the forward works programme. If these were to be included in a future works programme it would take some time to undertake the detailed design and then construct them.”

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage

2) Like our Facebook page

3) Follow us on Twitter

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

Always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.