A LODDISWELL resident has hit out over the 'ridiculous' situation where Aveton Gifford gets 13 buses a day, while her village could be reduced to just one after county council cuts.

Alison Seldon pointed out that although the two places are less than three miles apart, Aveton Gifford benefits from the main 93 bus that runs between Plymouth and Dart-mouth, while Loddis-well has to rely on the infrequent 162 service.

Under cost-cutting proposals from Devon County Council, the 162 would be reduced to just two return trips from Kingsbridge to Loddiswell each day – only one of which would be of use to those needing to get back to the village.

The 93 would get away largely unscathed if the proposals are implemented, only losing buses on summer Sundays and bank holidays.

Alison's solution is that some of the 13 no. 93 buses currently stopping in Aveton Gifford should go via Loddis-well.

She said: 'At least two or three of these buses could be sent from Modbury to Kingsbridge via the B3196, passing through Loddiswell. This should have no overall effect on the total number of buses that could run the whole route from Kingsbridge to Plymouth each day, nor would it add to the journey time.

'Two or three extra buses per day would hardly impact the estimated 3,000 vehicles which already travel this road from the A38 every day.

'They're always looking to save money, but they only ever think about cutting services, not trying to make them better.'

Alison says the figures on bus use that DCC used to decide which routes should be cut were from May 2014 – before 70 new houses had been built in the village.She adds that scrapping the 5pm bus from Kingsbridge would affect families of sixth formers at Kings-bridge College, who are expected to stay late at school.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: 'The 93 bus service between Dartmouth, Kingsbridge and Ply-mouth is operated as a commercial route by First, from Monday to Saturday, so the route is decided by them. 

'The County Council supports the 162 service between Kingsbri-dge and Loddiswell, and we are proposing to reduce the present three return trips to two.

'We will be considering feedback from our consultation in due course.'