SABDEN residents are still in the dark surrounding a subsidised bus in their village after County Hall’s decision to revisit the issue in six months time.

At yesterday’s full Lancashire County Council meeting, councillors resolved to ask officers to negotiate with bus companies to see if any of them would be prepared to run services to the village.

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The council would then revisit the issue for subsidised buses at a later date.

Protesters gathered outside the meeting at County Hall in Preston to voice their concerns over the loss.

The village has been left without any public transport for several weeks after Transdev said it could no longer run the service commercially.

The company asked Lancashire County Council if it was possible for it to run the service.

County councillor Geoff Driver brought a motion for officers to negotiate with bus companies for a modified service to be subsidised by bus companies and the council to provide a bus through Sabden at 7am, 8am, noon, 5pm and 6pm.

At the meeting, Cllr Albert Atkinson, said: “This isn’t about money, this isn’t about politics.

“It’s about getting people to and from the village safely.

“The roads out of the village have no lights, no pavements and are lethal in the winter. People can’t get to their medical appointments, the nearest bus stop is more than two miles away in Whalley.

“People cannot afford to pay £14 each way to get a taxi to the village.

“There’s money in the council to do it.”

Carrie Nelson, from the Save our Service Sabden Action Group, said: “I was really disappointed at the meeting overall.

“It became very political and the topic often went away from the bus service.

“People cannot wait six months for a decision to be made, people have to go to college, school, work, see family members.

“They cannot just put their life on hold for months whilst this is all going on in the background.

“We will try again, we are not going to let this go and we will fight until we get something.”