IT'S been a successful year of action for a community bus launched to get children to and from school following cuts to services.

Dorset Community Transport (DCT) bus first arrived at Powerstock School 12 months ago, bringing in children all along the route from Bridport.

The school says the service has been a great success and is often oversubscribed.

The bus was introduced after what was Dorset County Council cut subsidies in the summer of 2017. This meant the public bus service from Maiden Newton, via Powerstock, to Bridport had to be withdrawn.

The school had to make a decision about how to get the children into school and help out busy parents by providing another service.

Powerstock headteacher, Louise Greenham, said: "Once we knew DCT would continue running other services in the area, we approached them in the hope of establishing a replacement service which the school could support directly. Thanks to DCT’s 'can-do' approach, we were able to devise a daily return service for our out-of-catchment children, whilst also ensuring we achieved maximum capacity along the route – crucial to the viability of the school’s support for the service.

"The team drivers are brilliant with the children and the service has been a great success - now the daily bus is full most days."

The school hopes the service can branch out further and reach children in Beaminster.

Mrs Greenham said: "The children know that they are safely belted in for each journey and enjoy travelling together each day. It has been great working with Tim Christian and his team at DCT who are so helpful and keep the welfare and safety of the children as a top priority.

"We are delighted that this venture has been such a success and are currently working hard to secure a new bus route from Beaminster to the school. We are very excited to add this next service to help out more out-of-catchment families."