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The 21 bus service from Blackwood will no longer stop at the Grange University Hospital, after Stagecoach announced funding was pulled by the Welsh Government.

The decision to stop the service has been met with anger and frustration from users and politicians, after funding for the route ended on January 7.

While the 21 service will still call at Newbridge, Crumlin, Llanhilleth, Hafodyrynys, Pontypool, and Griffithstown, it won’t stop at the Grange Hospital in Cwmbran.

Hefin David, Labour Senedd Member for Caerphilly, criticised the decision and said: “It’s deeply disappointing to hear that Stagecoach will not be continuing the Blackwood to the Grange service.

“I was hoping that it would be the beginning of a wider networked service to the hospital but that clearly hasn’t transpired. Welsh Government must now look at how they may infill services through other means.

“The new bus bill, which is shortly to begin passage through the Senedd, will be the opportunity to do that so that we may see more publicly provided services.

“I will be holding a bus surgery in early March so that residents themselves can meet with Stagecoach and Transport for Wales to raise concerns about the timetables.”

Plaid Cymru’s Senedd Member for South Wales East, Peredur Owen Griffiths, also voiced his anger at the decision. He said: “It is deeply disappointing that this service is no longer operational.

“It was announced to great fanfare by the Labour government last summer.

“As well as the long waits for treatment that have become synonymous with the Grange Hospital, its inaccessibility has been one of the biggest complaints about this flagship hospital since it opened nearly four years ago.

“Reliable public transport serving this hospital is vital for the communities I represent given the low car ownership that many of them have.”

Mr Owen Griffiths continued: “This will come as a bitter blow for hopes that connectivity to the hospital would get better, not worse.

“The reality is that many people will now have to catch at least two buses and spend a considerable amount of time getting to the hospital – whether for an appointment or to visit family or friends – if they do not have a car.”

Fellow Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell spoke during First Minister’s questions and said: “Cuts to bus services in the valleys are having a hugely detrimental effect on people’s lives.

“I’m particularly concerned about the ongoing inaccessibility of the Grange hospital by bus from too many communities. Lots of people in the valleys don’t drive, and to get from valley to valley, they’re dependent on buses.”

Ms Jewell, who is her party’s transport spokesperson, added: “A constituent has written to me to complain that there’s no direct bus from Caerphilly town to the hospital. Their neighbour who doesn’t drive has been having to visit his wife in the Grange for three weeks by getting buses.

“They’ve had to catch two buses, and the journey apparently can take over an hour-and-a-half – which is the last thing anyone would want when they’re visiting a sick loved one.”

In response, First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “A great deal of work has gone on already to create new bus services to the Grange hospital.

“No commercial provider will provide such a service. So, while I absolutely recognise the point that Delyth Jewell has made about there being people who rely on the bus service, there clearly are not enough of them to persuade a commercial provider to put on a service directly from Caerphilly, or in the other instances that she has identified.

“So, any new service has to be subsidised by the public purse.”

Stagecoach has been awarded more than 50 new tender contracts across south Wales, including new routes.

It will operate the contracts from April 1 for three years, with an optional extension of two further years.