Two Buses, One Hour: What "8 Miles" Really Means If You Don’t Drive
For families without a car in parts of Skelmersdale, reaching Southport isn't an 8-mile drive — it's two buses, a wait, and the best part of an hour, if a bus is even running.
It's the line we hear most from the decision-makers: Southport is only 8 miles away. That's true if you own a car. For hundreds of families across West Lancashire who don't, it's a different journey altogether.
The bus alone can take longer than the emergency
We looked at the public transport link between Skelmersdale and Southport Hospital, the route many families without a car would actually have to use. Buses between Skelmersdale and Ormskirk run only roughly every two hours, with the first departure from Skelmersdale at 6:33am and the last at 7:23pm. Miss that window — a sick child at 9pm, say — and there's no direct bus at all.
From Ormskirk you then need a second bus on to Southport Hospital. Those run more often, roughly every 20 minutes, but the journey itself takes 25 to 26 minutes. Add the connection, the wait between services, and the walk at either end, and a trip that's "8 miles" on a map becomes the best part of an hour on public transport — before you've even got your child seen.
Ormskirk's children's A&E is a short, direct walk or bus ride from the town centre it serves. Southport, for a family relying on buses, is not.
This isn't spread evenly
West Lancashire as a whole isn't one of England's most deprived districts — it ranks 176th out of 296 districts and unitary authorities on the 2025 Indices of Deprivation. But that headline figure hides sharp differences within the borough. Parts of Skelmersdale fall in the most deprived fifth of neighbourhoods in England, with one local area ranking in the most deprived 17% nationally on the government's own measure.
These are exactly the communities least likely to own a car and most likely to depend on that two-hourly bus. Move the children's A&E to Southport, and the extra distance doesn't land evenly across our borough — it lands hardest on the families with the fewest options to cover it.
What we're asking for
We love the doctors and nurses who look after our kids at Ormskirk. Our fight isn't with them — it's with a decision that was made without properly weighing what "8 miles" actually means for a family with no car and a two-hourly bus. The Health Secretary has an unanswered call-in request sitting on their desk. Before a single brick is laid on this £33 million move, they need to call it in and look at journeys like this one properly.
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