Villagers in Addingham have welcomed plans to end their isolation with the introduction of improved bus services.

Residents are set to benefit from a Government cash injection of £555,733 to boost rural transport links across the region.

The money will be the first of three similar cash boosts over the next three years as part of the Government's Rural Bus Initiative unveiled last April.

After consultation between district and parish councils and Metro, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, 22 new and improved bus services across West Yorkshire have been put forward for trial.

And the Addingham scheme will lay on "hopper"-style buses from the village to Steeton and Airedale General Hospital.

Metro is set to implement the first wave of new services later this month.

Although timetables have not yet been finalised new, more regular, services will include Skipton to Ilkley and Addingham, and Hebden Bridge to Keighley.

The Addingham to Steeton, Silsden and Airedale General Hospital service should come on-line in April along with daily mini-bus services from Harden, Cullingworth and Denholme to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Addingham parish councillor David Pratt welcomed the plans and said the village was badly in need of improved transport links. Currently there are two buses an hour from Addingham to Ilkley during the day and one to Steeton, and there is one service each evening and on Sundays to Airedale General Hospital.

He said: "We have been pressing for an improved service at parish council level for a long time. I feel that we're badly serviced by buses in the area and Airedale Hospital is a terrible place to get to. Any improvement will be better than what we have at the moment."

Councillor Latif Darr, Bradford Council transport committee chairman, said that the new services would be of great benefit to people living in more remote areas needing to reach hospitals as patients or for visiting.

Don Barrett, chairman of Addingham Civic Society, also welcomed the plans.

He said: "It's the regularity of the buses that's the problem and certain parts of the village don't have any bus stops at all. But any improvement of links has certainly got to be a good thing."

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