Truro and Falmouth MP Sarah Newton has praised a local company for stepping into provide a Flushing-Truro bus service and has called on local residents to show their support for the new route.

Following a reduction in the money Cornwall Council gives to local bus companies, due to government cuts, the 400 bus service, which ran between Falmouth and Truro through the villages of Flushing and Mylor, was withdrawn by First in November.

This left residents of Mylor and nearby villages without a bus service to Truro. Mrs Newton wrote to affected residents to ask for their feedback on how this was affecting them. Over 100 local residents replied specifying how the withdrawal of the service was hindering them in their everyday lives from missed hospital appointments to problems getting to and from college and school and to Truro’s shops. Mrs Newton took up these concerns with Cornwall Council and bus companies.

Following these representations and subsequent talks, local company Cornwall Ferries Ltd, the company behind the Fal River Cornwall Brand, drew up proposals for a twice weekly Flushing to Truro bus service. This service will run on a temporary basis for three weeks, starting on December 17, with buses running through Flushing, Mylor, Perranwell, Carnon Downs, Playing Place and Truro City Centre before terminating at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

In order for the service to run on a permanent basis following the three week trial, permission has to be obtained from Cornwall Council and the Traffic Commissioners.

Mrs Newton has expressed her strong support for a permanent service, said: “I am deeply grateful to the Fal River Bus team for being willing to step into the breach and provide a Flushing to Truro bus service, and the volunteers who were helping them to promote the new service. It is unacceptable that residents in Mylor and other villages have been left without a bus route to Truro, and the City’s hospital, college and shops. The Fal River Buses that will run over Christmas mark a real step forward, to secure them on a permanent basis we all need to show our support.

“I have posted the timetable on my website www.sarahnewton.org.uk and hope that local residents can vote with their feet and bus passes and show Cornwall Council what a demand there is for this service. I very much hope that a permanent service can be secured as a foundation for further improvements and will do all I can to achieve this.”