Here is the letter that lee samuel wrote.

EVERYDAY

GOOD! I hope you listen to people and improve the 7 service then . I have several real-life examples : Live in Fradley Village where the bus is every hour?? That goes for other areas en route i.e. Barston - Barton under Needwood and Yoxall / Alrewas EVERY HOUR and that's on a weekday!!?? It's a disgusting service if you have an emergency or an important timescale to meet for the day ahead. There's an alternative though - TAXI. Call a Taxi and it's wait for it.............£11 to travel two mile? Now is that a blatant con? I could go further down in London in a black cab for that money. Lichfield District Council on the financial gain again through vulnerable people. Due to problems with my foot now after a football injury I cannot drive and have to rely on this service the number 7 and it is useless. Sometimes it doesn't even turn up? With OAP's walking back home who had essential shopping needs that day and people saying ' I better call work and tell them i'm late my bus hasn't turned up'. WHAT??? People could lose their livelihood through this comical set-up. If you were a boss would you buy that excuse? Is this the way to do things?? It doesn't stop there. Try a Sunday - it's a farce and backward. The 7 service runs every three hours....so you're basically stranded from any real links. And Lichfield claims to be a city? Sorry but you don't even get the title of small-town in my eyes with services like that running so poorly. It all lacks any real flow - there's no continuity.
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Why can there not be a 1/2 hour service into Lichfield throughout the week?

Wake up the powers of Lichfield - you're turning people into 'prisoners in their own homes'.

Part of this problem is the cost of getting a conventional bus to the 'doorstep' of every passenger, when a lower cost option of getting the passengers to the bus is not seen by the blinkered approach of the bus providers who fail to see that everyone actually makes trips from door to door not bus stop to bus stop.

In Lincolnshire a subsidised hourly bus service with old buses was turned around into a fully commercial half hourly route with new buses and faster journeys by cutting out the grand tour of every village green, and feeding the passengers to the faster route with local demand responsive buses and even (locally operated) taxis (a taxi driver then benefits from not having the empty trip out from or back to Lichfield - which is of course reflected in the fare).

Further South one manager told me of a bus route where a 16 minute diversion on every trip generated barely 6 fares per day, yet this made it necessary to put an extra bus on the service to deliver the required frequency at £100,000/year.

Open a dialogue can a better level of service be obtained if passengers can get to other bus routes with local interventions - cycling, intelligent use of taxis (making connections with real time bus information*), better routes to walk. Consider transport as a unified utility. Improve bus stops by working to incorporate these with local pub/shop as place to wait, and check real time information.

*Arriva has been a leading operator for delivery of real time bus information.

Given your injury also consider for general local trips a cycle - check out Wheels for All, and www.Inclusivecyclingforum.org.uk. the guy who runs the latter is one of the small number of whole leg amputees in UK and he uses the bike with foam on crossbar to scoot around on as extensive use of crutches causes shoulder problems and whole leg prostheses are not the sort of thing you want to wear continuously. He does not own a car and travels widely by public transport

Famously one venerable gent (a former County Solicitor) travelled widely on his pensioners pass with an old style folding shopper bike. When challenged by bus and coach drivers he played the venerable card and declared that the bike was his mobility aid (An adapted bike used by a qualifying person fully meets the spec for a Class 1 Invalid Carriage, and thus should generally be allowed to go anywhere you might take a wheelchair or similar mobility aid - cue for a National issue - if Fixmytransport can sort out how to register that one)

The number 7 service is supported by
Staffordshire County Council and we operate the required level
of service stipulated by their contract.

In other words 'tough s***'

I wasn't fighting for myself personally , I was being vocal for the O.A.P.'s and people trying to make a living who depend on the cruddy 7 service.

I'm glad i'm leaving the area so I won't have to put up with this prehistoric way of life anymore.

Thanks for your help regardless and enjoy the horse & cart surroundings of Staffordshire : a non-progressive county which doesn't even care about their old. Cherry on the cake for me!

Hi Lee,

Just in case you do want to pursue this, this is the email address for Staffs council.

Good luck!

Myf Nixon