I am a non-driver and reliant on the 73 and I have spoken to Philip Williams, head of Gloucestershire County Council's Integrated Transport.
He said that tenders have gone out to a list of bus contractors for the Lydney-Chepstow route. It will probably be a reduced service and tenders are due back for scrutiny at beginning of September.
It appears that it is not a statutory duty to provide bus transport where cost outweighs use. They are also looking at existing local 'hopper' buses to ascertain extended or varied use.
If a service cannot be provided I would suggest it's time for us local and green bus users to start lobbying Lord Adonis.
Mark Harper MP has already written to relevant transport groups. It's all very well exonerating people to use local transport but it just isn't viable
here. – Sue Dubois, Newnham.