A LOCAL transport group has announced a new chair who says she will be campaigning to improve accessibility on public transport in west Dorset.

New chair Gesella Tidy is taking over as chair of West Dorset Western Area Transport Action Group (WATAG) from the former chair Bob Driscoll.

The transport lobby group aims to seek and achieve sustainable improvement in transport systems across the West Dorset area.

On her involvement in the group, Ms Tidy, said: "I have lived in West Dorset for just over 21 years, originally from Surrey. My first address was in Beaminster from where I often used the buses to get to either Bridport or Yeovil on a regular basis.

"After nine years I was offered a bungalow in Loders where I was delighted to make use of the 73 which was started up to maintain the link between Maiden Newton and Bridport when the railway line was closed. That service was slowly reduced, firstly by removing the Saturday bus and in 2017 it was stopped altogether when the then Dorset County Council stopped supporting a lot of the routes in our area."

She added: "My main concerns are in improving all areas of accessibility, not only for our public transport but also to promote and ease social accessibility for those of us that live in the many villages around our towns and need buses to get out or a usable and safe path/route to use for a walk but need mobility aids to do so, attend medical appointments, bank, shopping, socialise and access to leisure centres for exercise or recuperation."

She added that Mr Driscoll continues to be her mentor and continues as a much-needed member of the transport group and praised his knowledge and experience with local public transport.

As previously reported, Dorset Council had its bid for millions of pounds worth of funding from the government's Bus Back Better scheme, a National Bus Strategy for England that was launched in March 2021 and had a fund worth £1.4 billion, rejected by the Department for Transport as public frustrations with services in west Dorset showed no signs of easing.

The scheme aims to improve local bus services by making them more attractive for passengers, more affordable, easier to understand and use, faster, more reliable, and greener.

On lobbying for more funding, Ms Tidy said: "Our Government has promised to help our councils to achieve a lot of these things through Levelling Up, Bus Back Better and the Bus Service Improvement Plan, let’s hope they do and we all can work towards a usable, healthier and greener future with a local public transport service that’s fit for purpose. "

Dorset Council said it plans to continue moving forward despite the setback and will pursue future opportunities and continue to make the case for government investment for better bus services in Dorset.