Councillors in Gillingham are exploring plans for a once-a-week bus shuttle service for the Wyke and Peacemarsh areas of town.

The service would collect passengers in the morning and drop them off near Waitrose. The return trip would be early in the afternoon.

If the scheme goes ahead it seems likely that passengers would be charged £2 for the round trip.

The potential plan – talks are still in their early stages – was revealed by former mayor Councillor Barry von Clemens last week.

He was responding to a letter from a resident about the possibility of restoring a bus service serving Wyke, including Laburnum Way, and Peacemarsh.

Councillor von Clemens said he had been involved in exchanges with South West Coaches and Dorset Council and it was clear that as far as the company was concerned, such a service was not ‘viable’.

‘They’re a company and they have to make money and that additional bit really is not financially viable,’ he told a meeting of the Town Council’s general purposes committee.

However, he said that as members of the town’s Transport Forum he and Dorset councillor Belinda Ridout had looked into other options.

‘Councillor Ridout and I are in the middle of a long drawn-out process of working with some groups that have the ability to give a financially viable shuttle service once a week covering the loop from Wyke, Laburnum Way, down to Waitrose up to Peacemarsh and down,’ he said. ‘It would give people the ability in the morning to get down from Wyke etc to do their shopping and doctors appointments etc and to get back.’

Unfortunately, he said, even a once-a-week service such as this would cost money, in this case around £6,000 a year. Although this could in theory be paid for in the first year by a payment from property developers in the town, this would be a one-off, and the service would still need funding in subsequent years.

‘People would have to pay £2 a trip,’ said Councillor von Clemens, who noted that in past consultations with residents many had been reluctant to pay much for any new bus service.

Councillors agreed that the concerns raised by the resident’s letter would be passed onto the Transport Forum while that body continued to examine the prospects for a viable service.