Run to the Hills (or drive, or cycle - but don't catch the bus!)

It's just occurred to me to check the operating details of the Beacons Bus for 2014. For the last ten years or so, these popular services have run on summer Sundays, departing from several major towns in South and West Wales and heading into the Brecon Beacons National Park. They all met at Brecon, enabling easy interchanges and giving tourists plenty of time to explore before heading home.

Well, brace yourselves for the bad news. It's been discontinued as a result of funding cuts.

http://www.breconbeacons.org/beacons-bus
The withdrawal of the Beacons Bus will obviously have environmental and social repercussions on an already fragile Welsh tourist sector. Successive summers have been washed out by the weather, and many shops in Brecon are struggling to survive. Those of us without cars will be unable to visit the area and take advantage of its amenities. Given the lack of any alternative provision, those people who do want to visit the area will have no choice but to take their cars.

It's another step backwards for Wales, and a simple instance of how the austerity measures decided in Westminster and Cardiff Bay ripple out across the country as a whole.

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