Aberdeen City Council has agreed a motion from Lib Dem councillor Steve Delaney which seeks to ensure Kingswells residents are not left without a bus service and also looks at wider issue of public transport provision across the city.

Steve spoke of First’s total disregard for the residents of Kingswells and the difficulties they will experience if bus services are withdrawn and sought cross-Party support to find a way forward.

It all played out in a somewhat theatrical manner as Labour tried to block the motion twice. Steve then sought an adjournment from the Lord Provost in an attempt to find a way forward without division. What was agreed retained the focus and immediacy of the Kingswells situation.

Steve said, “It was somewhat bizarre how this all played out but I achieved what I had set out to do. This was to gain all Party support from the Council to do everything in it’s power to retain bus services in Kingswells and for politicians of all Parties to work together in order to achieve this. Anything less would have been a missed opportunity”.

“My thanks go to all councillors for their support. Also thanks to the Kingswells residents who sat through a very long meeting to hear this item”.

The full debate can be viewed online. Just select “7 a) Motion by Councillor Delaney” from the menu on the right of your screen. You will need to scroll down to find it.

What was finally agreed reads as follows:-

“That Council:-

1. Deplores FirstAberdeen’s intention to terminate the X40 service to Kingswells at the end of this year, effectively leaving an entire community without access to public transport.

2. Instructs the Director of Communities, Housing & Infrastructure to seek a meeting with FirstAberdeen to seek to reverse this decision and to further emphasise the need for services to be provided to all areas of Aberdeen.

3. Instructs the Chief Executive to meet with Group Leaders to consider how best to ensure that Kingswells residents are not left without a service and investigate how best to protect our communities across Aberdeen from further service withdrawals.

4. Reaffirms the decision of the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee and asks the Chief Executive to arrange for public meetings in Kingswells and Bridge of Don to take place, which seek to feed back and discuss options which are identified by residents and from the drop in sessions.