Villagers were left stranded in May when the Arriva number four service from Selby to Goole was reduced without warning, leaving passengers living in Hemingbrough and Cliffe with no means of getting home from Selby after 1.15pm.

But following a campaign by local parish councils and Selby MP John Grogan, the 5.15pm service from Selby to Hemingbrough via Cliffe and Osgodby will now run until April 2009.

The service, which started on November 8, is being subsidised by Hemingbrough, Cliffe and Barlby/Osgodby Parish councils, at a cost of £600 for six months.

Hemingbrough Coun Jan Strelczenie (pictured right) said: "This is good news. This is our last chance to prove that this service is viable for it to be kept on.

"We estimate the service will require as many as eight to 12 passengers to use it for it to pay its way, so people really need to use it or lose it.

"I would like to thank Arriva for its help because I don't think it wanted to cut the service and have advertised it on their buses for us.

"I would also like to thank John Grogan for his help and think his support has been a massive help along the way."

Coun Strelczenie said when he travelled on the service last weekend he had spoken to a boy with a Saturday job who was grateful the bus had been reinstated and a pensioner who had been able to meet her friends
for the first time in six months.

He added he was disappointed the service finished at Hemingbrough, instead of picking up passengers on the way back in to Selby, and expressed concerns about how Arriva would record passenger numbers where bus passes were used and a ticket wasn't issued.
(L0168TS) Picture: Tony Saxton