Rural bus service connecting Corby and Market Harborough will continue to run

The future of a rural bus service taking passengers to Corby and Market Harborough has been secured after a grant from Kettering Council.

At last night’s executive committee the Kettering authority decided to ensure the Welland Wanderer keeps running and providing a transport service for those in rural areas living between Kettering and Corby.

The Welland Wanderer – which runs a Tuesday service west between Gretton and Market Harborough and a Friday service east between Stoke Albany and Corby – was set up back in 2018 after a swathe of cuts to public transport by Northamptonshire County Council.

Kettering Council’s executive committee unanimously approved the decision to provide £2,600 towards the service, which will also receive contributions from parish councils and Corby Council.

The funding will allow the service to run for the next two years. In the most recent 12 months 2,400 people used the service.

However the decision was questioned by non committee member Cllr James Burton who asked why the Kettering authority should be granting funds to help run a bus service which took residents to neighbouring town centres. Corby Council had pledged funding earlier this year on the condition that Kettering Council matched it.

Kettering’s market town centre has dropped in the past decade as a popular shopping venue and is now without big name draws such as Marks and Spencer, Burton and Topshop.

He said: “My concerns are these people who travel by that particular bus route, they end up in Market Harborough and Corby. None of the travellers actually travel to Kettering. And yet Kettering subsidise this route. My question is, are any of these travellers going to be coming to Kettering via a bus service? We are paying that money for people to go and spend money in Market Harborough. Why are (sic) Market Harborough not putting any money into this system?”

Cllr Howes said the money was being used to transport Kettering residents and that it was a difficult issue in that they were travelling from their villages to other town centres, but that was where they wanted to go.

He said: “There are fundamentally two reasons for that. One is for shopping purposes – whether we like it or not, that is their closest town centre and also for medical reasons. A lot of the people in the villages are registered with a GP practices in Corby. It is a historic reason why these residents want to travel to these two local towns. We are subsidising and helping our residents get out of their homes, who are unable sometimes to do that.”