YP Letters: Crowdfunding hope for a vital Wensleydale bus service

From: Ruth Annison, Main Street, Askrigg, Leyburn.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Sep 2016, 17:16 BST
Updated 15th Sep 2016, 15:55 BST
Wensleydale Creamery is a tourist attraction which depends on rural buses.Wensleydale Creamery is a tourist attraction which depends on rural buses.
Wensleydale Creamery is a tourist attraction which depends on rural buses.

CAN crowdfunding save the “Wensleydale Flyer”? A Dales guesthouse has set up a Just Giving crowdfunding website to help raise money to keep the threatened “Wensleydale Flyer” No 856 bus service running for the next 12 months.

The 40 mile route of the 856 links four North Yorkshire market towns: Northallerton, Bedale, Leyburn and Hawes (the home of Wensleydale cheese) – and the villages between them, including Aysgarth (for the Falls) and Bainbridge.

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The “Wensleydale Flyer” is a vital year-round service for residents and visitors, with three return trips every Sunday and Bank Holiday throughout the year. On these 57 days, this is the only bus service connecting many communities along the A684 through the Dale, and the only way for many people to get to and from work, Northallerton station and the Friarage hospital; to and from Leeming Bar Business Park and the Wensleydale Railway; to go shopping; visit family and friends; or have a day out.

Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, has said: “This bus service is not only vital to residents living in these rural areas, but is a great way for visitors to travel around this beautiful part of our county.”