Cheshire East must ensure bus routes are provided to local hospitals when it reviews the services it supports, councillors have said.

The council currently spends £2.5m supporting bus services which are not commercially viable but are deemed important and socially necessary.

Last week the highways and transport committee agreed a review of the supported bus network should begin this month, as the existing contracts end next year.

But several councillors expressed their concern about the lack of bus services to local hospitals and said this should be a key part of the review.

Nantwich councillor Anna Burton (Lab), speaking as a visiting councillor, said: "One of the key issues that people raise in Nantwich is the lack of a bus service, and particularly the direct bus service to Leighton Hospital."

She added: "We're in a position where those people are missing appointments and things like that because they're having to go via Crewe."

Poynton councillor Mike Sewart (Con) said: "Getting people, who are unable to drive, to those hospitals is the key factor as far as I'm concerned in this review and it must be taken into account."

Wilmslow councillor Lata Anderson (Ind) said it wasn't easy to find a reliable service when it was needed.

She told the committee she would have had to have left home two hours earlier to get to the meeting in Macclesfield if she had taken the bus.

"This is just one example of how hard it can be to use buses even if you want to," she said.

"The review also needs to ask people why they are not using the buses.

"There will be many reasons including unreliability, no bus stop nearby, buses cannot get them to where they need to go, nowhere to sit at the bus stop, don't want to get wet waiting for bus etc."

She added: "If we want the buses to be a real alternative to using a car, they must be available to get people to work, or to school, or to hospital appointments."

Councillors also said the eight-week public consultation, due to start in May, should be accessible to everyone and not just online.

Wilmslow councillor Chris Hilliard (Ind) said it was important the council reached out to young people too.

"In other areas where they've got demand responsive services like Flexlink, it's been the younger people who've taken it up the most, and those are fare paying passengers," said Cllr Hilliard.

Resident Carol Jones, of the Crewe and Nantwich Bus Users Group, who spoke at the beginning of the meeting, also stressed the need for a direct bus service from Nantwich to Leighton Hospital, adding this could be achieved just by 'tweaking one of the services'.

Mrs Jones invited committee members and officers to attend the group's meeting later this month.

Committee chair Mark Goldsmith said he would email details of the meeting to all councillors.

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