GROVE residents will have a new bus service to Didcot on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Grove and other villages lost their last direct bus service to Didcot in December when Thames Travel dropped several stops from its 32 route.

It has been paid for by Oxfordshire County Council members Zoe Patrick and Stewart Lilly using money from their individual councillor budgets for community projects.

It is designed to be a temporary solution until June 2015 while a permanent one is sought.

Mrs Patrick, a Liberal Democrat county councillor for Grove said: “It was a huge blow for Grove to lose a direct link to Didcot when Thames Travel dropped the village from their new service routes.

“This will go some way towards restoring that link for Tuesdays and Thursdays and thus enable residents to travel without changing buses. It also provides more links to the Mably Way Health Centre on those days.”

Mr Lilly, Conservative county councillor for Ardington, added: “It is very unusual to get some rural services up and running in a time of financial constraints.

“It is the old message with bus services, the more they are used, the more commercially viable they will become.”

To view the new A1 service timetable, which will come into operation next Tuesday, go to zoepatrick.blogspot.co.uk