CRAVEN has been largely left out in proposals to improve bus services across North Yorkshire, claims Skipton Civic Society, which is urging people to make their views known.

The county council is currently consulting on its 'bus service improvement plan', which it says, subject to government funding, will be put into effect this April.

It says it hopes to create an 'enhanced partnership' with bus operators which will see services improve across the whole county, including making buses more frequent, better co-ordinated and cheaper.

North Yorkshire County Council's plan is in response to the government's national bus strategy which aims to transform the service with the aim of encouraging more people to use public transport.

But Skipton Civic Society says it barely mentions Skipton, and instead concentrates on Harrogate, Selby and Scarborough.

A spokesperson for the society's executive committee said: "We expected to see services around Skipton town and to nearby villages in the morning, evening and at weekends when the existing services do not run; larger vehicles on some 16-seater routes, a daily bus to Harrogate again and an evening bus to Grassington at the least.

"The improvement plan does none of these. It focuses on Harrogate, Selby and Scarborough and barely mentions Skipton. Nearly £100m of the expenditure proposed in the plan is for infrastructure, which includes bus priority in Harrogate and Scarborough and development of phase one of a ‘demand responsive service’ similar to dial-a-ride but calling at bus stops not at people’s doors. Skipton is not in this phase one."

The spokesperson added: "Other services will be supported in line with the North Yorkshire Local Transport Plan, which excludes support for Sunday, evening and tourist services, even though the improvement plan states that North Yorkshire is one of England’s most popular tourist destinations and that walking, hiking and rambling are popular activities for tourists and day-trippers."

The society is urging people to take part in the consultation, which closes on Monday, February 7 on the plan which it says is a 'failure to provide for the sort of bus service improvements Skipton needs'.

Take part in the consultation online at www.northyorks.gov.uk/bsip. To get a copy of the survey in a different format, email: epconsultation@northyorks.gov.uk or call 01609 780780.

Following the consultation, a report incorporating the feedback will go to the county council’s Executive in March to consider the enhanced partnership with bus operators, with a view to that partnership coming into effect from April 1.