BUSES will no longer stop at a huge shopping outlet in St Asaph - due to the 20mph speed limit enforcement.

From January 14, Arriva Cymru will no longer serve the Tweedmill or the village of Llandegla via its Services 51 and x51, Rhyl to Wrexham. Service 51 will no longer call into Tweedmill Shopping Outlet and on service x51, Llandegla will no longer be served and the service will remain on A525. 

A spokesperson for Arriva Wales said: "The withdrawal of this service in Llandegla is due to the impact of 20mph on the 51 and X51 services. To be clear this is not to say that Llandegla and its speed limits are the issue but now the service overall is taking longer to operate due to reduced speeds across the network.

"The consequences of this change in speed has been severe and has caused increased lost mileage and reduced punctuality. We have been open in raising our concerns with Transport for Wales, the Welsh government and local authorities. There have also been press statements and questions raised in the Senedd about this on the basis of our concerns and the consequences.

"As a response to reducing speed of buses there are these options to reduce frequency: speed up buses by withdrawing the service from an area or increase the amount of resource in the bus service.

"This service is already operating at a low frequency and there is no funding to support increased resource going into services so we have had to amend the route with the time saved by not operating in the village," the spokesperson added.

RELATED STORIES

"This time has been reinvested into the service to help it operate to time.

"These changes have taken place based upon a review of patronage and estimated time savings.

"The service will also now not call in to the Tweedmill."

The shopping outlet has been approached for comment. 

The Tweedmill, spread over 50,000 square feet, sells clothes, homeware, gifts, garden items and benefits from a café and farm shop.