Local residents and Lib Dem councillors were celebrating victory on Wednesday night after proposals to scrap the subsidised 967 school bus service were defeated.

Councillors on South Gloucestershire Council’s Planning, Transport and Strategic Environment Committee voted unanimously to back a motion, proposed by Lib Dem Councillor Pat Hockey, to keep the 967 service along with several other threatened local bus routes.

The vote came after a campaign by local residents and Lib Dem councillors to save the 967 service, which serves pupils at Chipping Sodbury Secondary School and Brimsham Green School travelling from Westerleigh and Yate.        

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor for Westerleigh, Claire Young, said: “This is excellent news for all those local residents who fought to save this service.

The 967 route covers a stretch of main road without any footpath. Many parents are not in a position to drive their children to school and there was considerable concern that cutting this service would have left some children in Westerleigh without a safe route to school.

“Encouraging the use of public transport from an early age is vital if we want to see fewer cars on the road in the future. There will be a lot of relief locally that the service has been saved.”