Shropshire Council is to deploy its park and ride buses and drivers to provide free transport between Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals for hospital staff, in particular a number of student nurses that need to travel between Telford and Shrewsbury each day for training.

Following a fall in passenger numbers the Shrewsbury park and ride service will be suspended after the last journey on Saturday until further notice.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, admits he is delighted to be able to make the offer.

He said: “We’ve held really positive discussions with our health and hospital colleagues about how we could best use the park and ride buses to benefit their staff once the service comes to a temporary end this weekend.

“I’m delighted that from next Monday we’ll be able to utilise the buses and drivers to transport our fantastic hospital staff between Telford and Shrewsbury hospitals, especially student nurses who need to travel for training.

“We’re also intending to run buses at a regular frequency throughout the day so that staff can come and go as needed – so we’ll continue to talk to our health colleagues to understand at what times the service needs to operate.”