A NEW ‘demand responsive’ minibus service for the Forest will be launched later this year.

Gloucestershire County Council was successful in bidding for £1.5m of government funding to run a trial service to help plug the gap in rural transport in the Forest and Cotswolds.

The areas are some of the worst in terms of a residents’ access to key services by public transport within 45 minutes.

There are 5,306 households without access to a car in the south Forest.The demand responsive transport (DRT) will run for two years and the plan is for two wheelchair accessible minibuses to be based in each area.

The service will run from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday and will launch this August in the Cotswolds and in the autumn in the Forest as the operator is still recruiting.

Journeys under seven miles will be £2.50 for an adult or £1.50 for under 15s.

If the journey is above seven miles it will be £4 per adult and £3 per child. And the mileage will be calculated by the onboard software.

Bus transport Cabinet member Philip Robinson (Con, Mitcheldean): “People book in advance up to one hour before. So you can book one more two weeks in advance and you’ll be offered a slot as close to the request as possible.

“This is a tried and tested system which is actually run by Lincolnshire County Council and they will run the call centre for us.