PEOPLE have just over a week to comment on proposed changes to bus services in Surrey that it has been warned could isolate vulnerable passengers in the villages around Farnham.

Surrey County Council is currently consulting the public on changes to bus services as part of its Local Transport Review, but this will come to a close on Monday, March 14.

In Farnham, services affected include routes 4/5, 16, 17, 18, 19, 46 and 65, with the threat of cuts to Stagecoach services in Folly Hill, Badshot Lea, Rowledge, Shortheath and other rural areas.

One of the changes, published in full online at www.surreysays.co.uk, proposes re-routing the combined services 4/5 to no longer serve the Folly Hill estate - leaving bus users to instead take the less frequent service 16 between Folly Hill and Farnham via Hale and Weybourne.

However, in an email to public transport expert and former Farnham town councillor David Beaman, Surrey County Council confirmed Stagecoach has “reconsidered” and will introduce a revised timetable from April 11 retaining a regular non-subsidised service for Castle Hill and Folly Hill running once-an-hour through the estate as service 4. Service 5 will continue to run twice hourly via Upper Hale Road.

Badshot Lea still stands to lose its direct bus link to Aldershot and Guildford though, in favour of a new stop on the service 46 in Weybourne.

The number 16 bus could be expanded to give more journeys between Badshot Lea, Farnham and Rowledge.

But this would come at the expense of reduced services on the number 17 which would no longer travel between Farnham Station, Wrecclesham, Rowledge and Shortheath - instead connecting the station with Elstead, Godalming and Guildford as service 46.

To view and comment on the changes before March 14 visit the website www.surreysays.co.uk or pick up a booklet and questionnaire in council offices, libraries and on buses in affected areas of Surrey.