I NOTICE in last week’s Sale and Altrincham Messenger, that there is an opportunity on October 7 between 9.30am and 3.30pm to give an opinion on the Arriva buses servicing Timperley. Unfortunately the date and time will probably exclude many working people from attending.

As someone, trying to get to work for 7.30am by public transport, the current service is so appalling that I have started walking to work – this takes me around 40 minutes but at least I know that I will arrive on time.

However I don’t relish the prospect of continuing this throughout the winter.

To my mind, there are only three issues involved in maintaining a regular bus service – enough reliable buses, enough reliable drivers and a well thought out timetable. When one of these factors fails, the knock- on effect on passengers throughout the day is phenomenal.

Holding seminars in Timperley village is not going to resolve any of these issues,.

Arriva need to take some positive action to resolve the problems which are letting down the residents of Timperley.

Having lived here for a mere 12 years, I have seen the service deteriorate from one of the best with three different routes to Altrincham providing a bus every 15 minutes or so, to the very worst service in the space of about two years.

Lately I have regularly had to wait 75 minutes for a bus that is supposed to run every 30 minutes.

This doesn’t suggest that a bus is late – it suggests that it doesn’t exist.

Come on Arriva, get your act together in Timperley! We know you can do it, because you’ve done it before.

You know better than anyone what has led to the deterioration – so address that problem and lets get back to the service levels you provided previously. With all the concerns about our carbon footprint, it’s the duty of our local authority and the bus company to ensure that we are all able to make fewer car journeys and use public transport more often. LW of Timperley