New bus lanes and travel hubs to benefit King's Lynn and Hunstanton as part of Norfolk County Council travel funding

New bus lanes and travel hubs are set to benefit two towns in West Norfolk.

Plans for spending £49.55million to improve bus services in the county as a whole will be formally reviewed by Norfolk County Council's cabinet next week - and King's Lynn and Hunstanton are set to benefit.

Lynn has been earmarked for new bus lanes, along with Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

And Hunstanton could be treated to a new or improved travel hub which the county council says will 'provide better waiting areas with real-time information to help to give passengers a better experience as well as being integrated with walking and cycling facilities'.

Redesigned junctions could also be implemented throughout the area.

The plans come after Norfolk was successful in securing local Bus Service Improvement Plan funding from the Department for Transport - and today (Monday) cabinet papers have been published which outline proposals on its spending over the next three years.

Norfolk received the sixth highest allocation in the country, and it consists of £30.9million of capital funding and £18.6million of revenue funding.

Cllr Martin Wilby, cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport, said: "This is a robust plan which was developed with operators and influenced by feedback from more than 1,500 Norfolk residents who took part in a recent consultation.

"More services and increased frequencies are key to enabling people to travel around the county by public transport and so it’s good to see that a significant amount of the funding will be used for this.

"The planned changes to infrastructure will reduce delays which will ensure an efficient and reliable service for passengers."

A county-wide review of bus stops will aim to improve access for people with disabilities, provide more real-time information, and provide a programme of works to reduce bus delays.

Approximately £12million of the funding will be spent on providing new or expanded bus routes and increased service frequencies on key routes, including more evening and weekend services.

Details of these routes will be worked up with bus operators, using feedback from residents, elected members and parish councils.

Councillors are also targetting a reduction in bus fares - particularly for those aged under 25, who will receive a 20% discount, and in targeted areas where flat fares schemes will be piloted. This pilot scheme will start in Great Yarmouth.

Linda McCord, the independent chair of the Norfolk Enhanced Partnership who also works for the passenger representative body Transport Focus, added: "Securing this money is a major boost for travel across Norfolk as improving bus services across the county is vital in improving rural mobility.

"Our Enhanced Partnership has already delivered a number of improvements including a new single ticket for use across all operators, a marketing campaign to encourage more people to use the bus, and a single customer charter for all operators – so I’m very excited to see this plan of improvements delivered over the next three years.”

The county council's cabinet will consider the report when it meets next Monday (October 3).