Fellow petitioners asking for restoration of evening bus services,

I have received an official response from Swestrans. Although it keeps to the ridiculous line that, if a local bus service makes a profit during the day it is a “ commercial” service even if it doesn’t make a profit during the evening and weekend which means it doesn’t have to run any buses then. However if it doesn’t make a profit enough overall the Council will subsidise it all week with the money they get from taxpayers through the Scottish Government and from those who live in the region and pay local taxes e.g. Council Tax.

This is of course ridiculous. However they seem to have a new officer who has at least politely replied to our petition and I attach it below.

It would be good if you all filled in the Councils online survey on the new disastrous bus services as he suggests. I think I will take it to the Councils complaints procedure but first of all  I will write again to Houston’s asking how they think they can afford the 10pm bus to Lochside but not one or more to Heathall and Locharbriggs which have a larger population overall and are further away than Lochside.

I suspect they have more committed councillors who support the community unlike ourselves who with the notable exception of Linda Dorward have been worse than useless, especially the two Tories Ivor Hyslop and Maureen Johnstone and sadly the SNP who forced me to leave the party as a result because they used to meet in Locharbriggs but moved to the Aberdour when the buses stopped.The current head of Swestrans is an SNP Councillor John Campbell as was their previous one the sometime Tory Andrew Wood , although he changes party like the weather but was appalling as Head of Swestrans. The local SNP Councillor seems too busy with being the Provost to bother with local buses sadly.

Anyway here is the letter, we will never surrender!

Dear Mr Ramsay,

Matters relating to: Petition to restore evening buses to Locharbriggs and Heathhall

I refer to your comments received on 6th September 2025 and thank you for your feedback on the revised timings for the Locharbriggs and Heathhall service.

As existing contracts with operators running subsidised routes in the region were due to expire on 6 August, it was necessary to run a procurement exercise to ensure that services would continue to run from 7 August. In addition to the planned procurement exercise, the unexpected withdrawal of Stagecoach West Scotland from virtually all the routes they operated in the region posed significant challenges, meaning that many routes had to be urgently reassigned to other operators or taken on by the council’s own bus service provider. 

We will continue regular dialogue with bus operators to raise awareness of any issues in an effort to improve timetable coordination and restore key links where possible in the existing Bus Network. 

The Heathhall and Locharbriggs routes are commercial services and not subsidised by SWestrans on behalf of the Council. I would suggest you approach the current provider Houston’s to see if they would be interested in introducing those times in your email below?. The Lochside route mentioned below is also a commercial service and operated by Houston’s and it was their decision to include a 10pm timing which they would deem commercially viable. Could I also ask that your share feedback by completing the feedback form. 

We are grateful for your feedback and appreciate the time taken and massive effort made by yourself and all signatories to communicate everybody’s concerns with us. If you require any further clarification on the above response, please contact us. However, if you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to submit a formal complaint under the Council’s Complaints Handling Procedure which can be found on our website at https://www.dumgal.gov.uk/complaintsprocedure

Kind regards

Grant

Grant Coltart I Team Leader I Mob No. 07813980749 I Email: grant.coltart@dumgal.gov.uk

South West of Scotland Transport Partnership (SWestrans)