THE idea of a shuttle bus to ferry patients to and from the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, has come from a Haslemere town councillor.

Ted Orchard made the suggestion at the last meeting of the town's finance and general purposes committee.

t was in response to a letter from Surrey County Council involving a new approach by SCC and Waverley Borough Councils, to encourage greater public participation in local transport planning.

Mr Orchard told members of the town council he believed one bus in the morning and another in the afternoon would provide necessary transport to and from the hospital following the decision to scrap the hospital car service last year.

He believed it would but also help Care in Haslemere who have taken on additional requests for transport and now have to cope with the colossal burden of transporting more and more infirmed and elderly patients to and from the hospital.

"The requirement on Care has increased beyond measure," said Mr Orchard.

And he added after the meeting: "Care are having more and more problems finding drivers."

Mr Orchard said he believed there should be a twice-daily service leaving the town at 9 am and returning at 1 pm and another service in the afternoon.

In his letter to the town council Graham Hodgson, the county's Waverley district engineer said that in response to a bid for funds, the government would be providing SCC with £23 million for the first year with more due in the remaining years.

"This reflects a countrywide increase in funding for transport investment, and offers a great opportunity for councils to create new facilities and widen travel choices," said Mr Hodgson in his letter.

"The county and borough council already have a transport programme in place but we would like to develop this further by asking local groups, be they area or interest based, what else they would like to see done," he said.

Mr Hodgson said that they were inviting the council among other recipients of the letter to "identify genuine transport issues and ideas or proposals for addressing them."

Haslemere town councillors agreed to defer the item until the next meeting of the finance and general purposes meeting when details of any ideas would be discussed.