THE latest volunteers to pass the test to drive for an Upper Dales bus service have been added to the 35-strong team.

The Little White Bus, serving both Wensleydale and Swaledale, aims to prevention isolation in the deeply rural communities by providing links to nearby market towns.

Each volunteer has to pass a national Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme (MiDAS) exam, which tests their driving skills as well as giving training for passenger care and safety techniques.

Any driver aged 70 or over must pass a more stringent test.

All the new recruits passed the test.

Two of the drivers are county councillors – Cllr John Blackie who started the service in 2011, and Cllr Stuart Parsons who passed his MiDAS test last week.

Cllr Blackie, director of the Little White Service, said: “We are expanding our services and from May we will be the only operator running scheduled services in the Upper Dales, using seven buses to do so.

“We would be nowhere without the public-spiritedness of our volunteers, who have enabled our bus services to keep going when elsewhere they have been cut out altogether.

“It was great to see four women volunteering as our gender balance was a little out of kilter with very nearly all our existing drivers being men.”