Preston bus service fight: Young boy's plea for axed route to be brought back

Mum Jayanti Raddy with newborn daughter Priya, Vinayak (left), eight, and Kartik, seven

Vinayak Raddy, who is eight, says that cutting the number 14 bus route down is unfair on the people who live in the Ronaldsway and Longsands areas.

“Me and my brother are really struggling to get to Longsands,” said Vinayak, who lives in Deepdale with his family but goes to school in Longsands.

“I think we should put the bus number 14 back because lots of people are struggling to get to Longsands - not only us, other people as well.

“It’s not fair on people.”

Mum Jayanti, who also has a newborn daughter Priya, has to make the trip between Deepdale and Longsands four times a day to drop Off and pick up Vinayak and Kartik, seven, from school.

She said: “I don’t drive. I’m really struggling.

“I have to do the trip four times a day. I can’t afford to move house. I can’t work.

“I don’t have any family support. My husband is in India, we’re struggling to get him a visa.

“At the moment we are getting the number six which goes to Brookfield and then walking from there but the road is not even safe - there’s practically no pavement and my children could fall onto the road.

“We are still having to pay £115 every month for our bus pass and you are not getting enough services.

“We just really want the service back. It would be a great help, especially since winter is coming.”

Another angry resident is Helen Hull, of Longsands Lane, whose 15-year-old son was stranded at the bus stop on the first day after the service was scrapped.

Mrs Hull said: “It has left us without a service to get children to school, or college. We can’t get into the city centre. We can’t get to Royal Preston Hospital.

“It is the young and the elderly who have been hardest hit by this. They clearly think that, because this is a reasonably affluent area, everyone has a car and we don’t need buses. But that isn’t the case.

“We pay amongst the highest council tax in Preston, yet we are the only area of the city now which doesn’t have a bus service.

“I think we have been abandoned.”