ONE THOUSAND Rainow residents will be left high and dry when a new round of county cash cuts are enforced.

From mid-July all evening bus services that ferry passengers back and forward between the town centre and village, Monday to Saturday, after 5.30pm, will be axed.

And there are no alternate bus routes supplying the area, leaving carless bus users with very few options.

Passengers will be forced to either fork out the £5.50 taxi fare (£7 after midnight) each time they make the three mile journey or resort to tackling the unlit, uphill roads on foot or bicycle.

The Number 60 and 63 are just two of five buses that will grind to a halt when the new plan, set up in answer to the County Hall's giant £800,000 overspend, is put in place.

But Rainow is only one of two areas that will be left without alternate forms of public transport.

Wildboarclough schoolchildren will also be left stranded when the 1A service to Tytherington High School is revised - the Wildboarclough to Forest Cottage part of the journey will be cut while the rest of the journey will only be retained for students travelling to the school.

The other routes to be cancelled are daytime services 287 Macclesfield to Wilmslow; E97 Handforth to Wilmslow High School and 391 Macclesfield to New Mills, via Bollington.

The remaining 12 routes, that were once earmarked for the chop, have either been saved or revised.

Rainow's borough councillor, George Marshall, occasionally uses the bus system in Bollington. He is concerned that passengers are going to lose a vital lifeline when the cuts are enforced.

"I would be disappointed if they stopped the buses I use so these people who really, really need the transport are going to be devastated," he said.

"Although they are arguing that not many people use these buses - which is true - they are lifelines to the few who do. Night shift workers like nurses have no other way to get home than through the bus service."

"And there are elderly people who will also be isolated, which is already happening, while younger people who want to go out to Macclesfield in the evenings have no chance. It seems to be a step backwards. We are supposed to be taking public transport seriously."

"Although most people have cars these days there are a few people who do not, and their lives are going to be really disrupted. People used the buses in the past and now they are going to have to do without them."

Initially the county councillors threatened to end all subsidised night journeys. This latest decision was made after six months of heated debate in reaction to the controversial plan to claw back cash from public transport.

Nine of the 17 supported passenger services earmarked for the chop will be retained; one is to be revised and the rest have been withdrawn.

The 14A Macclesfield to Weston and Langley service after 6.30pm will be reduced with alternate travel available with the 29A for Leftwich and rail for Lostock.

The following routes will be retained - the 38 Macclesfield to Crewe; 45 and 6 Macclesfield to Weston Estate; 191 Stockport to Middlewood via Poynton after 8pm; 9 and 10A Macclesfield to Moss Rose or Bollington after 7.55pm; 130 Macclesfield to Manchester via the hospital and Wilmslow after 7.30pm; 38 Crewe to Macclesfield via Congleton; 130 Macclesfield to Manchester via Wilmslow; 5 and 6 Macclesfield Bus Station to the Weston and Upton Priory; 9 Macclesfield to Moss Rose and 10A Macclesfield to Bollington.

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