A ROW over late and cancelled bus services in West Somerset has been joined by MP Ian Liddell-Grainger.

Mr Liddell-Grainger has written to parent company First Group ‘at the highest possible level’ in an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem.

The Free Press reported last week how Williton resident Linda Sparks was frequently late for her ‘key worker’ job in Minehead because of the unreliability of the No 28 service from Taunton.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Complaints about the 28 service have been dropping into my mailbox for years, but every time I have taken up the issue with the company some feeble excuse has been trotted out.

“I am not going to accept this any longer.

“The point is that the 28 is a public service and for hundreds of people in West Somerset there is no alternative to it, no company running buses over the same route, and no trains.

“It is not good enough to say ‘we have not got enough drivers’ and it seems to me that every time there is a staff shortage it is the 28 route that takes the hit

.“I shall also be trying to ascertain at what point First Group intends to provide modern, comfortable, draught-free vehicles for the route rather than the current fleet - which looks as though it has come from a transport museum.”

Buses of Somerset told the Free Press it was, and had been for some time, trying to recruit new drivers amid a national shortage.

The company is due to meet county council transport chiefs to discuss the No 28 route challenges.