VILLAGERS are being urged to tell Cheshire West and Chester Council how much they value their bus service.

The call comes from former Wincham parish councillor Peter O’Halloran following changes to a bus service calling at Wincham.

The GHA Coaches 45 service between Northwich and Warrington, stopping at Wincham and Lostock Gralam, is to stop on Friday, April 29.

However Network Warrington, which also operated the same route until recently, is to run a revised 45 service, which is to begin on Saturday, April 30.

Mr O’Halloran, who uses the 45 service, is asking people who use the bus to contact the parish council so it can forward the comments to Cheshire West to be taken into account when the revised 45 route comes up for review in September.

“Anyone who wants to retain this service should contact the parish clerk, as the more people we get the more chance we have of keeping it,” he said.

“The bus is an asset to the village, especially for people who don’t have cars and want to go into Northwich and Warrington, and there are quite a few elderly people in the village who have stopped driving.”

Anyone who uses the 45 bus and would like to retain it is asked to email the parish clerk on winchampc@talktalk.net The revised 45 service will run six buses between Northwich and Warrington from Monday to Friday, from 7.13am to 6.30pm, and six from Warrington to Northwich, from 7.34am to 5.30pm.

There will be six buses on Saturdays, from Northwich to Warrington between 7.53am and 5.53pm, and from Warrington to Northwich from 8am to 5pm.

The buses will call at Townshend Road, Lostock Gralam, Wincham Primary School and Northwich Road, Great Budworth.

Cheshire West cabinet member Cllr Brian Clarke said the Northwich to Warrington service was supported by the council for a number of years, and in 2014 GHA Coaches registered the route to be operated commercially.

“The support previously given to Network Warrington Transport was withdrawn as we cannot financially support a service where a commercial equivalent is in place,” he said.

“Network Warrington Transport maintained their service. Various timetable changes took place by each operator.

“Network Warrington dropped the route 45, concentrating their efforts on service 46 - Northwich to Warrington via Barnton. This left GHA Coaches as the only operator on service 45.

“GHA Coaches have now given notice to cancel the service in its entirety with effect from April 29.

“This would have left the communities of Lostock Gralam and Wincham with a few journeys to Northwich via the 289 service -Northwich to Altrincham. Higher Marston and Great Budworth would have no service at all.

“We identified the problem at an early stage, and have successfully negotiated with Network Warrington to fill the gap and provide a bus service to these areas. This revised ‘45’ will start on April 30.”