A WEST Oxfordshire village needs a better bus service to serve villagers’ needs, a bus operator is being told.

Minster Lovell residents will meet Stagecoach Oxfordshire managing director Martin Sutton on Monday after saying they have struggled to attend hospital appointments in Oxford.

The bus company removed the village centre stop from the S2 route, which runs to Oxford, to improve reliability in changes to its West Oxfordshire services in July.

It now only serves the edge of the village and residents have already been told its old stop-off point at the White Hart pub cannot be reinstated.

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The S2 used to run through Minster Lovell at mainly half-hour intervals from 7.12am with the last return bus at 7.05pm.

The current S7 serves the village centre instead, but only runs hourly from 10.12am to Oxford, with the return journey running until 3.05pm. Villagers want the S7 service to have its hours extended.

Dorothy Holloway, 66, said: “Ideally we would like the S2 to come through the village but Mr Sutton made it clear that in no way would he reinstate it in its previous form.

“If we must have the S7 then we must have it on the hour from 7am until 7pm.”

Stagecoach added the S7 bus to take passengers to the John Radcliffe Hospital. It followed a campaign by councillors and residents, who said it took up to two-and-a-half hours to get from Witney to the county’s main hospital.

The S7 service only runs hourly from 10.12am to 4.12pm between Minster Lovell and Oxford, and from 10.47am and 3.47pm between Minster Lovell and Carterton.

Stagecoach also made changes to its S1, S2 and S3 services, including adding more rush hour journeys and replacing minibuses with double-decker services.

A working group was set up in Minster Lovell including residents and representatives from Stagecoach, the parish council, Oxfordshire County Council and West Oxfordshire District Council.

Stagecoach has since added some earlier and later 233 services to serve residents wanting to travel to Witney and Carterton but it has not resolved the problem of getting to Oxford.

Stagecoach Oxfordshire business development manager Karen Coventry said: “Minster Lovell Parish Council has made a number of requests which have all been considered and will be discussed at the meeting.

“We have a number of issues with maintaining the reliability of our services on the A40 corridor including the S1, S2 and S7 and are looking at how best to tackle these to minimise the effects on our customers.”

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