The keys handover between North Yorkshire County Councillor
Clare Wood, executive member for public passenger transport,
(right), and Lin Barrington of Bentham Community
Transport (left)

IT’S said that buses come in threes. But in Craven eight have arrived together as part of a £700,000 investment by North Yorkshire County Council and Yorkshire Forward.

County Councillor Clare Wood, North Yorkshire's executive member for public passenger transport has officially handed over keys for eight new minibuses to Lin Barrington of Bentham Community Transport at Settle Station.

This is the latest part of the 'Craven Hubs' project the County Council is delivering in partnership with Yorkshire Forward and Craven District Council.

"Craven Hubs" aims to improve access to services for people by investing in community transport services, and developing Bentham and Settle, together with Skipton as transport Hubs.

Transport is incredibly important to enable people to get to the essential services they need and these new buses, together with the improvements to Bentham and Settle stations can only be of benefit to residents and visitors of Craven.

Clare Wood - North Yorkshire County Council

Earlier this year over 150 guests gathered to mark the re-opening and dedication of the newly refurbished Station buildings at Bentham. This now provides new offices for Bentham Community Transport and a superb youth café offering young people a venue to get together in safety and comfort. In the next few weeks improvement work at Settle Station, funded by the project, will be completed.

North Yorkshire County Council has been working with Bentham Community Transport and the Little Red Bus consortium and is impressed by the effort and achievement of the partnership and pleased to provide funding for this initiative.

Cllr Clare Wood said: "This is an exciting project. Transport is incredibly important to enable people to get to the essential services they need and these new buses, together with the improvements to Bentham and Settle stations can only be of benefit to residents and visitors of Craven. The project has been operating since April, and already the number of passengers carried has increased by one third over last year. It has taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage, and I am confident the project will go from strength to strength".