Outcry over South Shields Stagecoach 12 bus cuts leaving elderly and disabled isolated, neglected and injured

Transport chiefs have been urged to perform U-turn on the decision to reduce the Stagecoach 12 bus, which runs from South Shields town centre through Laygate, Harton, and Cleadon Park, from a half-hourly to an hourly service.

The move has sparked complaints of locals struggling to get to medical appointments or visit family, as well as finding it hard to navigate the hilly terrain towards Marsden on foot.

Stagecoach has been accused by the South Tyneside Public Transport Users Group of failing to give 18 weeks notice of the changes, which is stipulated in the code of conduct of an agreement it has with the North East Combined Authority, while the North East mayor has been told to step in with public funds to restore the service.

The bus operator blamed “disappointing progress” with local authorities’ plans to install new bus priority measures for the 12’s struggles and said it was looking at alternative options to serve the area.

Nic Cook, who chairs the transport campaign group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “As the highest point in South Shields, it is not acceptable to expect elderly and disabled residents, which make up a large proportion of the population there, to be left isolated, unable to get to healthcare appointments, or to fork out for taxis to go about their daily living.

“For example, it is nigh on impossible for some for the residents to walk back up the hill home with shopping from The Nook at Harton. This is the closest place for them to buy fresh healthy food.”

She added: “We refuse to leave residents left isolated, their physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing neglected. Several residents stated that their families can no longer visit them because they cannot travel there reliably on public transport and cannot afford to pay for taxis to get there.”

Dozens of residents, as well as local councillors, gathered for a public meeting about the cuts at St Marks and St Cuthbert’s Church on Quarry Lane last week.

Tom Atkinson, 81, recounted how he had been injured in a fall as he tried to walk up a hill while carrying his shopping after missing the bus.

The pensioner said: “If you miss the 12, then there are five banks you have to walk up – it is a bit too much. I was carrying two bags of shopping and fell at the top of Quarry Lane. If a car had come over the top of the bank, it would have run me over. It was terrible.”

Stagecoach has been asked to temporarily reinstate the 12 to its half-hourly service and run a consultation process on its future and, if it is then ultimately deemed unviable, consider rerouting other buses to ensure The Lonnen and Watson Avenue have two buses an hour.

Mayor Kim McGuinness, who was given a £24 million funding boost by the Government last year which was to be partly used for saving under-threat bus routes, said: “I feel for residents in South Shields and have spoken to Stagecoach about the changes to this service. I remain very concerned the operator hasn’t properly engaged with passengers – it isn’t good enough and needs to change.”

The Labour mayor is planning to return the region’s bus network to public control, though this could take several years, and said the existing partnership agreement “is too limited and is not meeting the needs of local people”.

Stagecoach said it was investigating “options that may reinstate a higher frequency to this area of South Tyneside”, but that “any delivered solution has to be on a sustainable basis”.

A spokesperson added: “Stagecoach alerted Nexus, the appropriate statutory body, of service 12’s financial difficulties back in November 2024, and the likelihood of service withdrawal. This notification was well in advance of any statutory requirements, and over and above any timeline requirements of the Enhanced Partnership process. Subsequently, following dialogue with NECA and Nexus, Stagecoach continues to provide a modified hourly timetable on route 12, retaining links for local customers. This daytime link continues to be provided by Stagecoach at its own commercial risk, without financial support from NECA or Nexus.

“It is regrettable that disappointing progress has been made in regard to the large proportion of the £167 million awarded to local authorities under the BSIP process which was earmarked for bus priority. These measures would enable highways interventions to improve bus speeds, and reduce operating costs, meaning that marginal or loss making routes like service 12 could be made more sustainable.”

Publicly-owned Nexus, which funds 15% of Tyne and Wear’s bus network as well as running the Metro, said it had “worked closely with Stagecoach to agree changes to the frequency of the route, rather than the operator’s plan for a full withdrawal”.

Its commercial director, Helen Mathews, added: “The recent scale of cuts to commercial bus routes and frequencies is greater than our whole publicly-funded provision can cover.

“While we receive funding through the Government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan to support the bus network across the region, it remains the case that funding is limited. We must prioritise what funding we have available so we can support routes in those areas at risk of having no local bus services at all.”