A village near Peterborough has been saved from isolation for a second time after a deal was struck to run a shuttle-bus around a collapsed access road for the next two weeks.
Residents of Farcet had previously faced isolation before Christmas, until a shuttle-bus service was put in place. Now the situation has come back after leaking sewage works caused a road to collapse.
Stagecoach East’s Peterborough Operations Manager, Hema Russell, County Councillor Andrew Wood and Gavin Stanley from Anglian Water, struck an agreement between the bus operator, the Council, and Anglian Water, who have agreed to fund a shuttle-bus between Farcet and Queensgate Bus Station in Peterborough.
This will be a 12-hour service from 7.00am to 7.00pm, starting today (Wednesday 8 January) for two weeks.
Speaking after the shuttle-bus service was announced, Ms Russell said: “Our customers in Farcet are really important to us, so we are very pleased to again be working with the local council and Anglian Water – everyone really wants to find a solution and have moved quickly to make that happen for local residents. Now the people of Farcet will still be able to get out to go the shops, go to work, or to meet friends and family.
“At Stagecoach, we always aim to take a down to earth approach, and this is just another example of that.”
Cllr Wood said: “Following the recent work by Anglian Water in Farcet, a further area of subsidence has been identified. To enable successful upgrade of this pipework, it will be necessary to close the B1091 Broadway for a period of two weeks. Anglian Water will be funding the reintroduction of a Stagecoach Shuttle to enable access to and from Farcet whilst the work proceeds. They also plan to include weekend working to minimise the period of disruption. Whilst it is understood local residents will be affected by this work, it will enable essential upgrade to the water network for future years.”
Gavin Stanley, Senior Area Operations Manager for Anglian Water, added: “We’re really pleased that we were able to agree this solution with Stagecoach. Although this is essential work to maintain sewage services for our customers in Farcet and protect the environment, we recognise that roadworks can be disruptive, so it’s great that we’ve been able to find this solution with the council and Stagecoach. We’d like to thank everyone in Farcet for bearing with us while we carry out this emergency work.”
(Picture shows Hema Russell and Andrew Wood, courtesy Stagecoach)
