Our campaign to save the Saturday service on local bus routes certainly made an impact at County Hall.  The 800 strong petition, my lobbying plus all of the letters and e-mails helped make some difference.  In the end our efforts saved three Saturday bus routes and got some services partially restored but unfortunately a lot are still being cut.

First, the good news:

• the 101 Saturday service from Crossways via West Knighton and Broadmayne to Dorchester has been saved
• the 104 Saturday service has also been saved and
• the 183 Saturday service from Blandford via Puddletown to Dorchester and Weymouth will continue.

Then, the not so good news:

• the 103 will only run on Wednesday (County had originally wanted it completely withdrawn)
• the 311 will not run on Saturday and will have a reduced weekday service and
• the 387 will not run on Saturday and on weekdays will only run between Bere Regis, Tolpuddle, Puddletown and Dorchester except on a couple of days a week when there will be a limited service to the shops in Poole (County had originally wanted this service to stop at Bere Regis).

I am also keeping up the pressure to get the 101 re-routed to include West Stafford and Owermoigne on some more of its journeys and I am still awaiting news from the bus operator as this would help make up for the loss of the 103.

A big thank you to everyone who signed the petition and contacted the County Council.  We may not have stopped all of the cuts but this is a better situation than was originally proposed back in the summer.  The new timetable will come into operation in April 2014.