CONTROVERSIAL changes to bus services in West Oxfordshire will not be reviewed until February, transport bosses have said.

Minster Lovell residents hit by the July changes vowed to fight the Stagecoach decision after its managing director visited the village on Monday.

A village stop for the S2 service from Carterton to Oxford was removed in July because not enough people used it, Stagecoach said.

Stagecoach Oxfordshire managing director Martin Sutton spoke to Minster Lovell Parish Council’s monthly meeting on Monday, which about 20 villagers attended.

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Dorothy Holloway, of the Minster Lovell Bus Action group, said: “I was not impressed at the end of the meeting.

“We have been desperately trying to get Minster Lovell a better deal with the buses but it’s a very hard slog.”

The 66-year-old said: “We seem to be going round and round in circles and not getting anywhere. Residents were all pretty dissatisfied and rightly so. It’s extremely frustrating, Minster Lovell just feels like it’s being short-changed.”

Parish clerk Katherine Doughty said: “Residents feel completely let down. I think it’s having quite a big effect. It’s extremely upsetting for them.”

Students arriving to college late, residents not able to get to work on time and problems getting to Oxford hospital appointments have been reported, Mrs Holloway said.

She added: “The whole system is not working. I have no intention of giving up at all until we have got a better bus service for the village.”

The firm said it will monitor services before returning to the parish council in February.

It said the change to the half-hourly 7am to 7pm service was needed to make the service more reliable in West Oxfordshire. It now only serves the edge of the village and residents have been told its old stop-off point at the White Hart pub cannot be reinstated.

The hourly S7Oxford service, which runs from about 10am to 4pm, is unaffected. Villagers want this to run from 7am to 7pm.

Stagecoach has also added extra journeys to the 233 service through Minster Lovell.

Business development manager Karen Coventry said: “The data we have for both before and after the changes provides little evidence to show that there is sufficient demand to support an additional commercial service through Minster Lovell."

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