RURAL bus pass users are to have their concessions enhanced so they can travel before 9.30am in some instances.

Gloucestershire County Council has made a U-turn on plans to stop concessions before 9.30am following strong criticism from people in rural communities.

The authority has announced it will put £56,000 into the pot to help some isolated communities including Wotton-under-Edge, Kingswood and in some cases Dursley.

Bus pass holders who live in areas where there is no bus between 9.30am and 10.30am will be able to use their passes to travel before 9.30am.

Cllr Waddington said: "When we asked people about their transport needs, the thing that kept coming up was the difficulty some people would experience if they weren’t able to catch the bus before 9.30am.

"In many rural areas, bus services are infrequent and only run a couple of times a day which makes it very difficult for people in rural areas to access services if their passes are time restricted.

"It’s important that people can access essential services like health or work so we have agreed amend the scheme to ensure people are not isolated."

Mayor of Wotton John Cordwell was pleased with the announcement, having campaigned for some time for better public transport in rural areas, but added: "This clearly helps, but only for as long as the bus services themselves survive the cuts."

Previously, some district councils chose to pay for an enhanced service, which in some areas includes earlier start times, travel tokens in lieu of bus passes and taxi tokens/vouchers.

However, this year, the government has only given £5.4million to the county council while the statutory scheme alone costs £5.9million to provide.

This means the council has to add £500,000 of its own funds just provide the basics to the 102,000 people who are currently eligible.

Originally, the council was unsure if it could afford to pay for any enhancements to the statutory scheme, but funding has now been allocated to cater for people in isolated communities.

Bus routes you can now use your bus pass on before 9am: No. 40 Wotton to Stroud No.201 Thornbury to Kingswood to Gloucester No.224 Dursley to Berkeley to Bristol 281. Dursley, Coaley, Upper Cam, Uley, Dursley (Mon-Wed) No.311 Thonbury to Wotton to Dursley.