The lack of public transport makes life difficult for rural communities

The authors of Rural Transport Futures call on the Welsh assembly and local government to do more to reduce rural poverty.

People on low incomes can be forced to run a car, which gets them into debt, says the report.

It also claims the loss of local services means people have to make long round trips to hospitals, dentists, courts and Jobcentres.

Public transport in Wales is not working Fran Targett, Citizens' Advice Bureau Cymru

The report also calls for regional co-ordination, with public bodies forced to ensure the needs of rural people are taken into account before cutting services.

Quality of life

Possible solutions identified include shared taxi buses, co-ordinated bus and train timetables, and door-to-door transport which the report says works for other European countries.

The UK-wide report, published by Transport 2000, Citizens advice and the Countryside Agency also claims that poor public transport affects people's quality of life.

"Public transport in Wales is not working," said Fran Targett, director of Citizens' Advice Bureau Cymru.

"Our evidence shows that poor public transport makes it difficult for people to get to work, the shops, post offices and hospitals because of expensive or infrequent public transport.

The CAB has calld on the government to get things moving

"Some people even end up in debt because they have to run a car, which they cannot afford.

"national, regional and local government have to meet the challenge and get things moving for rural Wales."

A typical example cited in the report is of a Powys woman who had not received any tax credits, although she had claimed on time.

She needed to make a 50-mile round trip to visit her nearest tax office to pick up an emergency payment, but lack of transport meant she had to borrow a car to make the journey.

Helen Phillips, a case worker for Powys CAB, has seen the problems at first hand.

"The lack of public transport means that people in Powys have to have a car to travel long distances to work," she said.

People in rural Wales find it difficult to get to Jobcentres

"But creditors such as banks don't take into account rural factors such as this and question why people need to have a car which causes our clients even more problems."

Other problems highlighted by Ms Phillips were the lack of dentists in the area and the large distances clients had to travel to court.

"Clients find it difficult to find ways of travelling the large distances to courts in Powys," she said.

"If they don't attend court then it can affect the judgement on how they can deal with their debt."

A Powys council spokesman said the local authority was already spending �894,000 a year to support 40 bus routes in the county.

"We also support 24 community transport schemes to the tune of �130,000 per year," he said.

An assembly spokesman acknowledged it was not always possible to provide conventional bus services in rural Wales.

"This year, a grant scheme is providing more than �8.5m to local authorities enabling them to boost the number and range of subsidised buses and support community transport projects," she added.

"In addition we are providing �2300,000 to the Community Transport Association in Wales over three years to help it develop and expand its advice and support network.