AN ANGRY bus passenger in Creech St Michael has launched a petition after discovering the main bus service villagers rely on to get into Taunton is being withdrawn.

Julie Mayo, who lives with her 17-year-old son, said she was upset after WebberBus announced it would be withdrawing its service to Taunton in September.

Her petition calls on Webber- Bus to reverse its decision.

Buses of Somerset, which is operated by the First bus company, also runs services from the village to town but Julie says it doesn’t run as many buses and tickets are more expensive.

She said: “No-one is very happy about this at all. “The First buses don’t go directly to the hospital and they don’t run as many services as Webber so it means people could just be stuck in town for ages. “I’m refusing to uses First buses because tickets cost so much more.

“I’ve actually bought myself a bike to get around because it’s easier. “I’ve had lots of people sign the petition and I’ve handed it to Jeremy Browne (Taunton’s MP).”

Julie said her son was going to struggle getting to Bridgwater College from September.

She added: “Webber have early services but with First, the first one from here isn’t until just before 8am, and he then has to change at Taunton and that means he won’t be in college on time.

They don’t run as late either.

“To walk to Taunton takes ages because there’s no short cut and walking along the canal is dangerous.”

A spokesman for WebberBus said they had to withdraw the service due to a lack of passengers.

They added: “Instead of losing money we have decided to withdraw the service.

“We barely have enough passengers and now that we’re competing with another service we just can’t afford to run it.”

A spokesman for Buses of Somerset added: “As our Service 26 is a brand new route which we only introduced last month, we have no changes currently planned, though we are constantly reevaluating our networks.”