Rosehall in desperate need of transport solution
A SMALL, central Sutherland community, which has been left without public transport following the withdrawal of its Postbus, is desperately seeking a replacement service of some kind.
Royal Mail axed its Lochinver to Lairg Postbus service, which called in at Rosehall, on 31st January.
Creich community councillor Lily Byron said people in the Rosehall and district, who have no private transport, are now completely stuck.
The area has an estimated population of around 200.
"It's just dreadful. There is now way in or out of Rosehall for locals or for visitors," said Mrs Byron. "But we are not giving up. We will try and resolve this somehow."
Mrs Byron said the Postbus service had suited residents well.
The bus formerly picked up passengers at Rosehall and arrived in Lairg at 10am – in time to connect with the morning train. The bus made the return journey at around 12.30pm.
"I have a friend who used it twice a week to go to classes at Lairg Learning Centre," said Mrs Byron.
"I understand residential staff at the Oykel Hotel also used it to come down to the shop at Rosehall or to go to Lairg or just simply to get away.
"Local teenagers also used it on Saturday just to get out of the village!"
Mrs Byron added that the community had not been officially informed about the withdrawal of the service.
"There was no public announcement. It was left to the driver to tell passengers," she said.
Another local resident, Anne Snody, commented: "It's absolutely awful to have no public transport at all. To live in a place like Rosehall and not have any back-up service if your car is not going for any reason, is not good."
Royal Mail were under contract with Highland Council to operate the heavily subsidised Lairg – Lochinver Postbus service, but made it clear they did not want to re-tender when the contract came up for renewal at the back end of last year.
The company has discarded all but one of its 35 Highland Postbus routes in recent years. The only remaining one is in Sutherland – the Tongue to Lairg route.
The Rosehall issue was discussed as a matter of urgency at a meeting of Creich Community Council last Tuesday.
In attendance was Highland Council's senior transport officer, Bob Edwards.
Speaking to the Northern Times earlier this week Mr Edwards said Highland Council and constituency MSP Rob Gibson had lobbied Royal Mail hard to keep the Postbus operating.
"Royal Mail are driven by different dictates these days and have decided in their wisdom that Postbuses are not something they can continue to provide," he said.
"They are driven by the office of the Postal Regulator whose priority is the delivery of mail and not, unfortunately, providing a service to rural communities."
Mr Edwards said there were a number of possible ways to resolve the situation, ranging from the development of an informal "car scheme" operated on-line to a more formal, administered scheme.
Officers were also looking to see if the minibus operated by the Bradbury Day Care Centre in Bonar Bridge could be used at Rosehall. Another possibility was extending an existing Dial-A-Bus service to the Rosehall area.
But he said: "It's difficult to say what we can provide until we know what the requirements are. It's no good us providing a bus to Lairg every morning, for example, if people want to go in the afternoon. It may be that a contract bus is not the solution and a much more flexible service might be the answer."
He added: "There is certainly a strong feeling that the community want a transport solution, but once you start to try and develop what that solution might be, it becomes clear that people have different requirements and different needs.
"Trying to scope all that together isn't something you can do at an hour-long community council meeting. It is going to take a bit of work."
Mr Edwards said the next step would be for the authority's Inverness-based rural transport officer, Ivor Souter, to arrange a meeting with community representatives and local operators of community and public transport.
