Members of a north-east coastal community trying to save a weekend bus service have been granted an audience with their MP.
Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid will travel to Gardenstown next week to meet with campaigners attempting to stop the 273 Saturday route being axed.
The council-backed route connects the village with Banff and Fraserburgh, but will end on April 15.
It’s one of 29 services being completely axed or replaced with a dial-a-bus option after Aberdeenshire Council withdrew its funding.
Residents argue the move would leave the Moray Firth community without a public transport link from 6pm on Friday until 8am on Monday.
A petition against the move gained more than 400 signatures and was handed into local authority bosses last month.
Now Mr Duguid will visit Gardenstown to speak to those keen to maintain its public transport links.
He will be at the village harbour on Friday, April 12 to discuss the concerns people have ahead of the service coming to an end.
Andy Sturdy, secretary of the Gardenstown Village Action Committee, handed over the petition to the council’s transport chief Ewan Wallace.
He wants more time to show that the service is financially viable.
Mr Sturdy said: “Aberdeenshire Council and other advisory organisations have been unable to offer us any realistic alternative public or funded transport, and therefore we have asked, in particular, that the council give us a further period of one year in which to try to prove that the service can be made more financially viable.”
The council said they would listen to anyone with alternatives to axing the buses that serve Gardenstown at the weekend.