Petition urges return of Spondon Flyer

A petition has been signed urging the return of trentbarton’s Spondon Flyer bus service. The route has been temporarily suspended.

Spondon Councillors and local business organisation Spondon Traders have presented a petition signed by 2,150 residents of the Derbyshire village. Residents are demanding the restoration of the service which used to enable them to access the village and Derby city centre.

trentbarton managing director, Jeff Counsell, said: “The reductions made to the Spondon Flyer service pre-pandemic were made in the face of reduced patronage against a backdrop of increasing costs. These changes were made in an effort to maintain commerciality and sustainability. The impact of Covid saw usage fall to unprecedented levels across all of our services, including the Spondon flyer.

“The continuing impact of Covid-19, now combined with an acute shortage of bus drivers forced us to review our network and we made the difficult decision to temporarily withdraw the service given that much of the village would continue to be served by our Ilkeston Flyer service.

“We are very aware of the impact on those Spondon residents who live in the outer edges of the village and for who, the Ilkeston Flyer is much less convenient or accessible. To this end we will continue to actively review our bus network in the area and consider a way to reconnect these residents to the village centre and on into Derby in a sustainable manner.”

Cllr Chris Poulter said: “Jeff Counsell is now in no doubt as to the serious issues the withdrawal of the Flyer is causing and he has pledged to continue to explore a temporary alternative service to at least cover the daytime period.

“He did explain they are short of over 140 drivers to operate all their services and as a result other services are also being affected.

“We will continue to lobby for this vital service to be restored as soon as is practically possible.”