Nottinghamshire County Council agrees to subsidise 141 bus route for at least one more year as service is put out to tender

Nottinghamshire County Council is giving local bus operators an opportunity to tender for a replacement service for the 141.

Currently, the service, which connects Hucknall to both Nottingham city centre and Mansfield, is operated by Trentbarton but it was announced last month that they would be discontinuing it in September.

This was met with uproar from local people and Councillor Jason Zadrozny started a petition to save the service which received over 3500 signatures.

A meeting between the County Council and Trentbarton was held last week (11 July) to try to prevent the 141 service being lost altogether.

It has now been agreed that the County Council will further subsidise this service when a new operator takes it over.

Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment said: "We know how valuable this service is to local people and we want to make sure there is a reliable option for people who wish to travel.

"The Council is looking to use its transport funding from the Government which is there to support local bus operators to get back on their feet post the pandemic and, to also encourage more people to come back or start using public transport.

"We are intending to make this investment over the next 12 months to make sure a route is available for people to use but I would encourage local people to make full use of the service as it will be reviewed at the end of the 12-month period."

The County Council is now working with local transport operators to put out a tender for this route and the aim is to have the service up and running on 5 September 2022.

Councillor Clarke added: "We always listen to local people and where we can, we will always intervene. Nottinghamshire already supports around 80 bus services across the county at a cost of around £4.1m. Reliable, effective public transport is a priority for this council."