People power won the day when villagers staged a protest over bus services, writes Emma Thompson.

People living at Milton Heights, near Abingdon, were incensed when a well-used route was axed in 1977.

Bus drivers pulling up at the usual stop in the village were contronted by angry housewives and children waving placards and demanding a better deal from the bus company.

The protesters surrounded each hourly bus, handed leaflets to the drivers and asked them to take them back to Oxford to be read by their bosses.

Families living in the village, especially those with young children, were already furious over a new section of the A34 which cut them off from their shops a mile away.

They claimed their pleas for a footbridge over the dual carriageway had been ignored by the Government.

The latest blow came when changes to the bus service meant they could no longer reach their post office in Milton and their nearest doctor's surgery at Sutton Courtenay.

Sue Pye, of Duke of York Avenue, Milton Heights, who helped organise the bus protest, told the Oxford Mail: "Bus services to the village have gradually deteriorated over the last 18 months.

"Buses used to come right into the village to turn round, then take us to Milton and Sutton Courtenay, but they now go straight to Steventon and Abingdon.

"To catch a bus to the places we need to go, you have to make that journey, then catch another bus to Sutton Courtenay, which leaves you with a long walk home."

The villagers' protest paid off as the county council agreed to pay for a minibus, supplied by Rowstock Limousine Services, to take them to Sutton Courtenay two days a week.

Mrs Pyke said of the news: "We're absolutely thrilled. The service will be quite adequate to meet the needs of our people."

The 1977 protest revived memories of another in 1954 when villagers complained about the 5d bus fare from Milton Heights to Milton - "the most expensive ride in the country", according to one villager, Mr T Bolton