A West End pensioner who led a bid to save a city bus has challenged the councillors who scrapped it to ride it themselves to understand the consequences of their decision.
Doris McLaren, 94, launched her campaign to save the subsidised 204 bus route at the start of this month after learning the service was being dropped.
It primarily serves the West End along Magdalen Green, with elderly residents using it to access the city centre and Ninewells. The route was quietly dropped by the council in February – and a bid to reverse the decision was defeated this week by SNP administration councillors and the lord provost.
Mrs McLaren, who walks with a stroller, claims those who voted to scrap the route did not understand its value to the local community.
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She said: “I might be 94 but I’m independent. I get on this bus every day and I use it to do my shopping and to go to my GP and Ninewells.
“I can’t get up the hill (from Magdalen Green) to Perth Road – and having to phone the Blether Bus to take me up to a bus stop is not good enough.
“A week past Friday I was going to Ninewells and there were 20 people on that bus. Are we all meant to fit on that Blether Bus?
“They cannot take the service off. I want someone to sit with me for two or three days and see the people that come and go on it.
“There’s supposed to be community consultation on this sort of thing. I’ve lived here since 1960 and we’ve never been without a bus. I really need that 204.”
Administration councillors voted 15-12 to scrap the 204, despite pleas from residents to think again.
The SNP says it is “allowing” locals to redesign the Blether Bus route – but the minibus-type vehicle is not disability friendly.
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West End Labour representative Richard McCready, among the dozen councillors who tried to save the 204, is “hugely disappointed”.
He said: “The very reasonable voice of local residents was ignored.
“As a local councillor and resident, I heard the voice of local people and I am hugely disappointed that this was ignored by the SNP administration.”
Dundee City Council were approached for comment but hadn’t responded at the time of going to press.
