Sunday February 15th 2026
Midlothian View reader Dean Wight has written this letter to the editor.
Dear Editor,
This decision by Lothian Buses is disgraceful, considering we are dealing with a council owned company, with absolutely no local consultation or discussion with the local community.
When declaring that this company would act as an arms length company you would expect that our councillors would have ensured that an agreement was in place that before any service was withdrawn from a community local discussion and consultation would have to happen.
Common sense does not appear to work with our elected local representatives, does nothing to increase public faith in them and this decision certainly does nothing to justify getting out of your car into a bus when they allow the withdrawal of a service with a nod .
This decision has been taken by Lothian Buses purely for doubling cash intake from the residents of Bonnyrigg, Poltonhall and Rosewell along with the Scottish Government. Residents will now have to take 2 buses to access our local healthcare facilities, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the East of Edinburgh and Musselburgh.
If they had any thought regarding the residents, they could have introduced the new service hourly and retained the 46, moving it to hourly, but no this is purely a decision based on greed and maximising profit.
All our councillors must now act to ensure this never happens again to any community and demand that proper discussion and consultation happen, with the local community affected, before any decision of withdrawal of a vital service route is taken.
Hopefully Lothian Buses will reconsider this shocking decision that has caused so much anger and frustration in Midlothian
Regards
Dean Wight
Rosewell
