Dear Sir
I have followed the correspondence on bus services in Aycliffe with interest. Last year Arriva were invited to the Town Council to answer comments when services were changed without prior notice, leaving many would be passengers totally bemused. The problems at that time arose from the withdrawal of the No.16 (operated by Scarlet Band) followed by Arriva  rerouting their services and the unreliability of the services.
This left residents of the Agnews, Avon Court and Bluebell estates without a service from Tesco that they had previously enjoyed. When the new Town Bus service was proposed I was consulted about this omission, but the proprietor decided on an alternative route. This left people only with a service to Churchill House end of town.
Residents of other areas of the town have since tried to dilute the service we have whilst retaining all their services. Surely this “rob Peter to pay Paul” approach is not the way forward. Improvement in services to all areas of Newton Aycliffe is needed. Arriva’s Paul de Santis admitted at the Council meeting that he did not know Aycliffe, but at the same time did not convince me (I was a Town Councillor at the time) that he was prepared to look further at the townspeople’s needs. The County Council Officer offered no assistance at all.
The only way to get improved services that I can see is to form a local “Users Group” to act as a pressure group approaching public transport operators and the County Council for their support.
There is a proposal for an integrated transport authority based on an enlarged “Nexus” area and a proposal was put forward for the Middlesborough to Darlington rail to be converted to a tramway. It would appear that we are in between these schemes and could lose out, hence my proposal for this new pressure group.
Some ideas:
Extend one No.7 service per hour limited stop from Durham to Newcastle via Metro Centre.
Review Town Bus Services in light of increased housing in the area linking bus services to the station.
Encourage Bus operators to advertise their services other than on their website.
Bill Curtis