AN INITIATIVE BY members of the Milne’s Area Forum has drawn congratulations from regional MSP Douglas Ross.

Members sourced funding to run a bus service on Saturday’s linking communities of Kingston, Garmouth, Urquhart and Lhanbryde to Elgin.

Their move came after Stagecoach withdrew the service between the communities – Moray Council moved to restore a weekday service, with the group moving to restore the regular weekend link.

Following the launch of the new service yesterday, Mr Ross said: “This is a great initiative which will provide a valuable service to these communities which rely on public transport and could otherwise face being stranded at the weekends, a time when a lot of people want to get out and about.”

After seeing off the new service when it departed from Kingston at 8.05am on Saturday, the MSP met with Paul Ralph and Anita Milne from the forum.

He said: “The council are already providing a bus service during the week, but that there was no weekend service for these communities.

“I understand this new service has been funded with a £4000 grant from the Money for Moray initiative, with Deveron Coaches having guaranteed that this will provide cover throughout the summer months – and I know that the community forum are hoping to identify other funding streams to keep the service running for longer.

“Everyone involved with this great community initiative has done a fantastic job to get it up and running. It is an excellent example of what can be achieved when everyone works together.”