I WRITE as someone very dependent on Dial-A-Ride, an excellent service which never lets me down.

Booking transport for and endeavouring to accommodate all who rely on them is not an easy task, now made more stressful by a 'buses only' ruling which means extra mileage and extra expense to get from A to B.

Example: To get to the town centre from Vicarage Crescent, drivers have to go via Sainsbury's roundabout (the less said about that fiasco and its markings the better).

Why the ruling on 'buses only' lanes? The new bus station is a wind tunnel and many bus services have been axed.

The millions spent on refurbishing the Kingfisher Centre has given shoppers Debenhams, card shops, mobile phone shops and extra fashion shops. But no food hall or supermarket and all but destroyed our good market.

Our council is urged to keep costs down but the 'buses only' ruling means increased costs to a good service, subsidised by the council, extra mileage and time to Dial-A-Ride mini bus drives and voluntary drivers, while taxis and other mini-buses still use the bus only lanes.

Redditch residents are being treated badly, which in turn means shoppers are going elsewhere, which again in turn will not be beneficial to the new stores.

DE Duffin

Vicarage Crescent

Redditch