Jimmy’s bus stop plea

PUBLISHED: 11:43 24 July 2015

Jimmy Small navigates his way along the B3176. Ref shs 1303-30-15TI. Picture: Terry Ife



A pensioner, who suffers from mobility issues, is appealing to bus drivers to stop closer to his house consistently - to save him a half-mile journey down a busy road.

Jimmy Small, who lives on land off the B3176, regularly uses the 382 bus service between Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary to do his shopping.

The 72-year-old needs a mobility scooter or crutches to get around, and said the bus sometimes picks him up close to his home.

But he said on other occasions, when the bus does not pick him up, he is forced to negotiate his way along the B3176 to the stop at the Bowd.

He said: “I’m a bit nervous when I go round there - sometimes the traffic comes around there really quickly.

“It can be a bit grim, but what else can I do? I’ve got to get out to go shopping.

“What I can’t understand is why aren’t there more bus stops or why can’t the bus stop and pick people up like they used to?

“The way I look at it, the bus passes by my house anyway, so why does it make sense for me to have to go down to the bus stop?”

Hatch Green Coaches, the company that operates the 382 service, said that although the bus runs along route set by Devon County Council, drivers should be willing to pick people up at the side of the road if it is safe to do so.


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