Councillors have welcomed news that Worcestershire County Council have backed a bid for an all electric bus in Bromsgrove.

Councillor Siobhan Hughes, who represents Bromsgrove Central, expressed that she was pleased with the news that will help boost the town's green credentials.

The Lib Dem councillor received cross-party support for her motion last year that saw Bromsgrove District Council declare a Climate Emergency and establish a climate change working group. In her calls to establish the group she identified the need for electric transport in the town to help make Bromsgrove carbon neutral.

Bromsgrove Lib Dems have called for public toilets in the town centre to reopen swiftly and safely in line with government advice.

The calls follow a statement from the Government last month identifying such decisions are for local councils, but the Government expressed "we strongly encourage them to open".

Bromsgrove's Lib Dem group have demanded a rethink after Conservative controlled Worcestershire County Council allowed vital local bus service the 202 to be cut.

Group Leader Cllr Rob Hunter has written to the Cabinet Member for Transport Cllr Alan Amos at Worcestershire insisting that the service must be saved.

Cllr Hunter said: "last year we secured cross party support in Bromsgrove for a commitment to tackle climate change and yet this is the second time in six months we hear of local bus services being cut. As lockdown eases people need safe, environmentally friendly ways to travel not cuts to services".

Cllr Janet King pointed out that the 202 bus is the only service which connects the residents of Old Birmingham Road and Rose Hill, Lickey with Bromsgrove town centre and access to Birmingham. She added "there is no sense at all in the proposals to divert yet more buses through Catshill. We need buses on this side of town too!"

Following an outcry from residents and frequent bus users, Lib Dem activist Samuel Evans, who authored the party's response to the council's passenger transport consultation last year, has now set up a petition to save the 202 service on the local party's website

Frequent users of the vital 202 bus service have been diamayed at news that Diamond are set to scrap the service. The existing bus route between Bromsgrove and Halesowen that connects the town centre with residents in Lickey End, Lickey and Cofton Hackett and takes students to Waseley Hills High School is to be replaced by an inadequate 44 service.

A local doctor is calling on Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid to back an extension to the Brexit transition period should there be no deal agreed by the end of the month.

Dr David Nicholl, the Lib Dem spokesperson for health in the West Midlands who stood against Sajid Javid in last year's general election, expressed the need to avoid a No Deal Brexit especially with the Covid-19 pandemic ongoing.