PASSENGERS are in line for a fare-free day to celebrate 25 years of minibus services in the Holme Valley.

Travel on services H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H7 will be free all day next Tuesday.

The thank-you is being paid for by Holme Valley Parish Council and Stotts Coaches, who operate the services, part-funded by Metro.

Organisers said more and more passengers were using the services since an initial three-month experiment in 1980.

The network has now grown into regular hourly services, running six days a week.

Centred on Holmfirth, buses cover Wooldale, Totties, Upperthong, Holmclose, Scholes, Thongsbridge, Brockholes, Deanhouse and Netherthong.

Metro chairman Clr Karam Hussain said he hoped for another successful 25 years.

"Local minibus services are an essential part of the fabric of life in our rural communities," he said.

Contracts to run the services are now administered by Metro, working with the parish council, and have recently been re-let to Stotts Coaches for a further five years.

An anniversary cake will be cut in front of a specially-liveried Holme Valley minibus at Holmfirth Bus Station next Tuesday.

The first services were operated by SKJ Motors and ran on three routes.

In reports to the parish council at the time, passengers said the minibuses were fulfilling a long-awaited need.

Passenger figures are now running at 151,000 a year.