Many of us that have lived in Bridgwater all their lives are totally horrified of what is happening to our old historic town.
Our Town centre has a limited offering but it’s still good and we must not lose what we have.
What we need to do is try and find a good way of getting to and from our Town, something that is getting more difficult by the day.
Yes we can put some of the blame on Hinkley Point buses but let’s be honest, it’s not the buses its all the cars, because we have forgotten how to walk and to be honest many of us can’t. We are all living longer, but let’s not forget this will be at a cost.
We all like to be driven in and we like being able to put our shopping in the back of the boot safely and why wouldn’t we? You get to a grand age and you want comfort this is why so many of us use our cars, but would we if we had a better transport solution?
Governments past and present all say we need to do more cycling for our health and more walking for joints and get cars off the roads. I say to everyone who has a greater say on this subject - don’t just invest in cycle-ways, invest in a better more reliable transport solution, such as a regular bus service from Rural to Urban areas. Whilst we do have buses there has been no investment in them for years. What we need is to grant us a more regular service, not just hourly but every half an hour, or even every 20 minutes, can you imagine, this? The Service will need to be attractive in terms of cost and efficiency that will give us all the service we want.
I hear you say is this a miracle is this a dream that will never happen? Yes it could, we need to stand up and be counted, young and old.
Without trying to sort this, our whole infrastructure in Bridgwater will eventually come to stand-still. We must find a way of being able to travel safely and securely and with the confidence that we will arrive home on time.
In the fifties in Bridgwater, we had a regular bus service that was half-hourly it went all over estates and it went on till late at night, so you could attend many cultural things in our town, because you knew you would get home. Here we are in 2024 with no improvements, more roads, more cars and we keep being told that we should be considering if it is necessary to get our car out of the drive-ways or from the street, or anywhere else you have found to park, because let’s be honest we are building houses without enough parking spaces, which causes so many problems. Did they see this as a deterrent, no! none of us want to be told we can’ take our cars out, so we do it, often starting out an hour earlier if you have to get to Hospitals from Bridgwater, as we all know it often takes an hour to get out of Bridgwater and the same coming in.
So in summary: we need investment in our Bus Services – lets aim for a service we can be proud of that allows us to consider leaving our cars at home. If we know we can get a bus that will get us to doctors, dentists, hospitals and the regular weekly or monthly shop this will be a step in the right direction. I am asking our Bridgwater MP Ashley Fox to raise further awareness of our awful traffic infrastructure in Bridgwater which I know he is already very concerned about. For us to get us a better quality of life, not spending hours in the car with the congestion, but a more peaceful life, this is what we all need.
