Alresford Town Council has kick-started efforts to get a late-night bus service up and running again, by voting £500 of funds to go towards paying for security guards.

The Friday and Saturday night number 64 service was scrapped earlier in April this year after several incidents of threatening behaviour against drivers and passengers.

The service, which left Winchester at 11.05pm to run via the Itchen Valley and Alresford, had to throw some people off after they became abusive.

Because of these problems, drivers based in Winchester were unhappy taking on the subsidised service and it was scrapped.

In September city councillor George Hollingbery proposed to the town council that, in order to and get the service up and running again, they could set up a scheme to provide a security guard.

The quote for this came to £8,000 a year.

Since then Alresford has contacted other parish councils which use the service in a bid to persuade them to contribute to the security scheme as well.

At the meeting Mr Hollingberry said: "We need to get the bus back on the road and I think we should take the lead and offer up some funding."

Councillors voted to provide £500 to initiate the scheme and speed up the process.

Ropley and Four Marks parish councils wish to support re-instatement of the service in principle, but want more information on funding.

Alton Town Council has requested more information and is still considering.

Kings Worthy Parish Council has its own bus service and has no need to contribute.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.