Arriva West Midlands and Staffordshire County Council have been asked to look again at the bus services they provide to residents living to the west of Stafford. Staffordshire County Councillor Barry Stamp made the call after receiving a number of complaints about the new 481 and 434 bus services that link Gnosall, Haughton and Church Eaton with the town.

"Following the recent introduction of new bus timetables and routes, I have been inundated with complaints from residents of the Gnosall, Haughton and Church Eaton areas who feel the level services they enjoy have been reduced. As well as complaining about the changes in some of the bus timings the major complaint is that the drop off and pick-up points in Stafford town centre have greatly been reduced. Until the changes came into play, buses from this area circled the town centre dropping and picking up passengers at a number of points, but now these have been reduced to the railway station and Chell Road. This means that unless the passengers are prepared for a long walk, some parts of the town are out of reach. Elderly passengers are particularly concerned that they are unable to shop at Tesco or Asda without a long walk carrying heavy bags of shopping. Also the Borough Council offices are out of reach to some people. I understand that the decision to change these stops was taken by Arriva and that the County Council decided to change the routes of the bus services they provide to fall in line. These changes have done nothing to improve the level of services bus passengers from the Gnosall area get, in fact they have made them worse. Many elderly people living in the rural areas rely on these services to get to and from the town, but these changes have effective reduced their choice of where to shop or where to visit once they have arrived in town. I will be writing to Arriva to ask that more drop off and pick up points are provided in the town centre for these services, and will also be asking the County Council's Development Services Scrutiny to look at the issue in some detail," said Councillor Stamp.