SIX parish councils impacted by a replacement bus service have come together to express their disappointment.

Swanmore, Bishop’s Waltham, Botley, Curdridge, Durley and Upham parish councils believe the new 49 route fails to promote active travel and connect residents to surrounding areas.

The new Stagecoach bus, replacing the Xelabus X9 and X10 sevices, started on Monday, April 3 and has already received backlash from parents of Swanmore College pupils.

The parish council statement criticises the 49’s accessibility to places such as train stations, onward bus journeys in Southampton and schools and colleges.

READ MORE: Residents fear replacement bus service will be even worse than axed routes

The statement reads: “Swanmore Parish Council in conjunction with Bishop's Waltham, Botley, Curdridge, Durley and Upham parish councils are hugely disappointed in the recently launched 49 Stagecoach bus service which has replaced the previous X9 and X10 services provided by Xelabus.

“The new service should from the outset meet, as a minimum, Hampshire County Council’s own stated transport strategy of improving ridership on public transport, be more integrated across different transport modes and promote active travel. The timetable as proposed totally fails to meet these obligations.

“The timetabled service fails to connect with trains at Botley station, because of the unnecessary routing back to Bishops Waltham, rather than continuing on from Swanmore to Botley by the more direct route through Waltham Chase and Curdridge.

“Limited demand for the previous service is a direct consequence of the poor connections of the X9 at Botley.

“The county council has specific commitments to better multi-modal integration which appear to have been deliberately ignored.

“The whole point of the Bus Service Improvement Plan is the improvement but the opportunity to improve has been missed by repeating the previous poor service patterns.

SEE ALSO: Hampshire County Council funds Waltham Chase to Hedge End bus service

“The service also fails to connect to onward bus services to Southampton at Hedge End or Botley. The first 49 service arrives at Hedge End at 8.50am at the exact same time as the Bluestar 14 leaves for Southampton. Therefore, there is almost no chance of a usable connection. Likewise, the 49 arrives at Botley School at 8.40am and the Bluestar 3 leaves at 7.21am and 9.10am.

“As the X10 direct bus from Swanmore/Bishops Waltham to Southampton has been withdrawn, the lack of connections is unacceptable.

“In any case, journey times to Southampton will have increased and a change of service operator at Botley or Hedge End will increase fares for all users.

“As Bishops Waltham and Swanmore are in the Southampton Travel to Work Area (TTWA) it appears to fail to align with Hampshire transport strategy? The residents now have a £150,000 plus service which fails spectacularly to get children to and from school in a timely manner, makes travelling to the local colleges difficult, increases the cost substantially to get to Southampton, prevents regular commuters from reaching national transport links in a timely fashion and their subsequent onward journeys and is most definitely not an improvement on the previous service despite the improvement plan.”

READ ALSO: Dismay as woman forced to walk 45 minutes home after three buses were cancelled

Winchester City councillor for the Meon Valley Ward, Frank Pearson, said that although the new bus service isn’t 100 per cent satisfactory, “it’s better to have a bus than to not have one”.

The councillor continued to point out that travel option were already limited. Cllr Pearson said: “It’s always been a trial from Swanmore. Access to Southampton is very difficult, impossible in the evening, and the alternative of a taxi is a joke.

“If Hampshire County Council want to convince us to not use our car it needs to provide a better alternative and make that service attractive.”

Following concerns from parents on how their children would get to Swanmore College, a spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “Pupils who are eligible for assisted home-to-school transport are eligible to use the new Stagecoach 49 service. Bus passes are in the process of being sent to pupils ready for the Summer term.  The X9A service, provided commercially by Xelabus, also includes journeys to and from Swanmore College on school days that can be used by anyone who needs to travel. However, students with a bus pass issued by Hampshire County Council are not able to use this on the X9A service.”