Following the public meeting with Cllr Lesley Hinds the Ratho and District Community Council have been in correspondence with Cllr Hinds and her assistants regarding the points raised at the meeting with minimal success. We subsequently had a further meeting with them and alternative routes were proposed. These, together with our outstanding points were dismissed and we were also referred to the report to the Transport and Environment Committee presented on 27 October 2015. An extract is attached below but in summary it states that there is no justification for any additional subsidy for the route to Ratho.
It does say that discussions continue – we will continue to pursue these.
Extract from report to to meeting to the Transport and Environment Committee:
At its meeting on 18 March 2014, following a report on Subsidised Bus Services – Ratho Village and Dumbiedykes, Committee agreed ‘that the Acting Director of Services for Communities report back once the new contract has been in place for six months to consider the need for a public transport link to the city centre and a future link to the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena’. Discussions have taken place, and are continuing, with Community Council representatives, to identify an optimum service for Ratho which can be provided for the same or a lower price than the current service.
When there are budgetary pressures which may affect services in some areas, it is difficult to justify expanding them elsewhere, unless there is an overwhelming case for doing so. It is considered that financing a direct bus service from Ratho to the city centre, and a future link to the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, is not such a case.
If you would like to see the full report it can be accessed here.