THE time has come for Ludlow bus services to be fully restored to the level they were before lockdown.

Vivienne Parry, a Ludlow town councillor and Shropshire councillor for Ludlow south says that the residents and trading in the town are being put at a disadvantage because of the buses cuts.

Following the lockdown the number of daily buses linking the outskirts of the town with the main shopping area was halved from 12 buses a day to just six.

"At the time that was a sensible thing to do," said Mrs Parry.

"Many shops were closed and people were for the most part staying at home in accordance with Government instruction.

"There was almost nobody using buses or any other form of public transport and so it was right that services were reduced."

But she says that it has been too slow to respond to changes.

"Now more people are about and they want to be able to get into the town to shop," added Mrs Parry.

"But there are just not enough buses and that causes a dilemma."

The councillor said that the first bus of the day from Temeside where she lives is at 8.24am with one at 9.24am and another t 10.24am.

But after that there is no service until 1pm.

"This means that people going into the town in the morning are left with a very short time in which to do their shopping or perhaps go the bank before it is time for the return service," Mrs Parry added.

"If they do not finish in time then there can be a wait for hours to get another bus.

"I have been speaking to someone who went to Aldi to do shopping. They had not been out for 14 weeks and when they went to catch a bus home they faced the choice of having to be squashed in between two other people or waiting an hour for the next bus. In the end they decided to take the bus but it was scary and they were not able to social distance as required.

Mrs Parry says that permission is needed from Shropshire Council before the buses that are operated by Minsterley Motors can be reinstated to how they were before the end of March.

She said that Ludlow is a hilly town and many people depend upon being able to use the bus.

With Ludlow trying to stage some kind of recovery from Covid-19 and shops desperate to make up for lost sales it is vital that it is as easy as possible for people to get into the town centre which Mrs Parry says is not being made easy.

"The time has come to get things as far as possible back to normal and that includes the buses," Mrs Parry said.