The battle to save the Market Harborough to Gretton 67 bus

Conservatives are generally in favour of austerity until it affects their own ward or constituency.

Still, I am pleased to see that Conservative councillors are campaigning to save the Market Harborough to Gretton 67 bus.

According to the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

Conservative councillors Rob McKellar, Kevin Watt and Bridget Watts, who represent Weldon, Gretton and Priors Hall on Corby Council, are campaigning to save the service which Centrebus has announced will cease in July after its county council subsidy was withdrawn. 

They have launched a Facebook page calling for the service to be saved and are working with MP for Corby and East Northants Tom Pursglove, Gretton Parish Council and Northamptonshire County Council to try and broker a deal. 

Cllr McKellar said: “The Number 67 bus is a lifeline to many residents in Corby’s surrounding villages. 

“It doesn’t just transport local people between Gretton and Market Harborough, but it also connects our villages to Asda and to the Corby Business Academy, as well as providing a link between Priors Hall, Gretton and Rockingham. 

“We will fight hard to save the service and we will do everything in our power support to those affected by its cancellation.”

The photo above shows a bus at Gretton, but it is not the 67. It was taken during what turned out to be the final Welland Valley Beer Festival.

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Market Harborough to Corby bus route under threat

The Fox Inn, Wilbarston

The 67 bus route, which runs from Market Harborough to Gretton via Corby and Rockingham, is to be withdrawn this summer after the decision by Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) to remove its subsidy.

Andrew Royle, the chairman of Gretton parish council, told the Harborough Mail:

“NCC were surprised by Centrebus’s decision to withdraw the whole of service 67 after July 23 as their understanding had been that the single vehicle operation on Monday to Friday was commercially viable, and Centrebus had given them no indication otherwise when they informed them of the likely withdrawal of their support for the service before Christmas.”

Campaigns against the decision have been set up in both Gretton and Wilbarston.

I did use this bus occasionally to get out into the countryside when there was a Saturday service, but that was withdrawn some years ago.

I wish the campaigners well in their attempts to save this route, but it is the massive cuts in central government funding for councils that are at the root of this.

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Loading and hauling ironstone in Corby, 1968

Another glimpse of the industrial steam railways of the Northamptonshire ironstone belt in their last years.

The music is no better than before.

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The Great Market Harborough Gas Leak of 2016

On Wednesday afternoon news stated coming through on Twitter of a major gas leak in Market Harborough.

Great Bowden Road and Station Road in Great Bowden were closed to traffic, and people in that area were being evacuated from their houses. People said you could smell gas in the town centre.

More importantly, from a purely selfish point of view, the railway line through Market Harborough had been closed. Trains from Leicester to St Pancras were being diverted via Corby.

I left work at 5 sharp, found no sign of the promised rail replacement bus service and caught the scheduled X7 bus instead.

It can't be easy finding buses at the time of the school run, but I know from experience that if I had waited for a rail replacement to be arranged I might still be there now.

Anyway, the Leicester Mercury has the story of the drama as it unfolded.

When I came home from cooking for my mother, the chip shop in Coventry Road was full of triumphant gas men.

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Hauling ironstone towards Corby in 1968

Apologies for the early-PC style of music, but this is lovely footage of an industrial locomotive in a Northamptonshire ironstone quarry.

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