Over 1,000 respond to public consultation on McGill's route future

The future of McGill's services X23 and 23 remains unclear after the company held a public consultation last night in Renfrew. 

The buses are a highly important link for residents in Erskine, Inchinnan, and Renfrew, to Glasgow, but there are fears the services could be drastically reduced. 

READ MORE: McGill's chief clashes with Renfrewshire Council leader

At last night's meeting, McGill's chiefs said the routes were no longer financially viable and the fleet was needing to be replaced. 

Over 350 people attened the discussion, held in the Normandy Hotel, with chiefs of the Greenock-based firm promising to listen to feedback. 

As a result of last night's heated meeting, Derek Mackay, Renfrewshire North and West MSP, has launched his own public consultation with over 1,000 people already responding. 

Ralph Robert (left) clashed with Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson over the routes

Mr Mackay said: "McGill’s have confirmed they are proposing to make changes to this service. However, unfortunately, the meeting this week did not result in any clear understanding on what their plans are or the proposals they intend to bring forward.

"In order to fully represent my constituent’s views on the potential proposals McGill’s have agreed to go away and draw up, I have launched by own consultation survey.

"If you use the service I would encourage you to complete the survey soon. Once I have the results I will send these to McGill’s and use it to lobby the company on behalf of locals.”

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The news comes fresh off the back of the impending closure of the McGill's Barrhead depot and head office operations at their Inchinnan base.

Survey can be found at Survey Monkey, or paper copies can be obtained by emailing Derek.Mackay.msp@parliament.scot