A WHEELCHAIR user from Thornbury has criticised Gloucestershire County Council for running “illegal buses”.

David Redgewell, from Thornbury, raised concerns about the bus service between Thornbury and Cam in a Gazette article published in November but since then nothing has been done to improve access to the 207 service.

According to Mr Redgewell, from January 1 of this year all buses under 7.5 tonnes must be low-floor and he said that Gloucestershire County Council is lagging behind when it comes to introducing more low-floor buses, particularly in comparison with South Gloucestershire and Bristol City councils.

“Gloucestershire County Council is a shambles,” he said. “Why is everywhere else super low floor yet we have Gloucestershire County Council who live in their own corner of the South West where the law doesn’t apply?”

“Despite the best efforts of Thornbury and Yate MP Steve Webb and Thornbury town councillor Shirley Holloway no change to the route has been put in place.

“The current situation is completely unacceptable - it’s a human rights issue. Why should I be penalised because they can’t get their act together? Everyone tells you that things will change but nothing ever happens."

Signage at Gloucester bus station had also not been updated to accomodate recent changes to bus services and Mr Redgewell attacked the council's slow response to resolve the issue.

He said: "Gloucestershire County Council have a siesta sort of attitude to their bus services. People have been given wrong information about bus services from Gloucester for months and even though I informed them of the issue nothing was done."

Alan Barrett, passenger transport manager at Gloucestershire County Council said: “We’re aware of the issues with low floor buses and local routes, and although the Equality Act 2010 doesn’t apply to community transport, we’re making every effort to make sure as many services as possible are easily accessible to all users.

“We’re meeting with Severnside Transport next week to talk about the 207 service, to see if we can work with them to resolve this.”

A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said that the signage at Gloucester bus station has now been updated.