A PETITION to save the X91 bus service in the Chew Valley was presented to a West of England Combined Authority committee meeting on June 5.

Jackie Head has been the driving force behind the Chew Valley Sustainable Transport Group which set up the X91 under a WECA scheme for communities to set up their own bus services.

That route is set to cease in July.

She said: “The X91 has been very popular. It came from nothing to something that really usefully serves eight villages in the Chew Valley.”

Alongside the petition, 18 further residents submitted statements to the meeting about how they relied on the X91 to reach work, education, the supermarket, or hospital appointments.

Two people said they needed the bus to reach chemotherapy appointments at the Bristol Royal Infirmary while a further person said they relied on it to attend job centre appointments in Bishopsworth and would not be able to get financial support while looking for work if the X91 was cut.

The Chew Valley Sustainable Transport Group has come up with a new proposal of how the X91 could keep running, calling for it to be a two-hourly service continuing to call at all the villages, with a separate service running hourly to connect Bishop Sutton to Midsomer Norton.

B&NES councillor for Chew Valley, Dave Harding, said: “The Chew Valley Sustainable Transport Group proposed a sensible motion to cover a similar network footprint while still retaining the X91.

“Please listen to this suggestion and have the common sense to adopt it,” while Jackie Head added: “Please listen to our plea and intervene to help retain the X91.”

Mayor of West of England Combined Authority, Helen Godwin told her: “I do genuinely appreciate all that you do and how much commitment you put into this, so you are being heard.”