AN extension of Government funding to help keep vital West Somerset bus services running was welcomed this week by a county-wide campaign group.

The Somerset Bus Partnership (SBP) said it was partly down to pressure from local supporters that the Bus Recovery Grant would not now end next month.

Instead, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has pledged the fund will continue until October as part of a final £150 million made available to support bus and light rail services across England.

During the past month Somerset supporters sent 80 letters to the Department for Transport calling for the grant to be extended beyond April.

SBP co-chairman Peter Travis said: “There has been a huge nationwide campaign demanding the Government should continue to support bus services.

“Thanks to the many of you who joined with us and successfully lobbied the Government over this issue.

“But our bus services in Somerset remain under very real threat.

“The return of passengers to buses here in Somerset has been slower than in many other parts of the country and bus operators are facing huge cost pressures with escalating fuel prices coupled with a continuing driver shortage.”

Without the extra Government funding, which was introduced to support commercial bus companies through the Covid-19 pandemic, it had been predicted that dozens of routes could be lost across the county.

Somerset County Council is expecting to hear shortly if its £163 million bid for Bus Service Improvement Plans funding has been successful.

The SBP has also produced a ‘bus manifesto’ which it asking all candidates in the forthcoming Somerset unitary council elections to support.