SCHOOLS, hospitals and other key services in Herefordshire take nearly half an hour on average to reach on foot or public transport, figures show – some of the country's longest journeys.

Council chiefs have called on the next government to ringfence funding for transport networks to tackle travel times which are getting longer nationwide.

Each year the Department for Transport calculates journey times from neighbourhoods across England to eight local services by walking or on public transport.

The measure represents a typical Tuesday's travel in October, based on road networks, traffic speeds and public transport timetables.

Destinations range from job centres to GP surgeries and food shops.

In Herefordshire, journey times to these sites averaged 29.3 minutes on foot or public transport in 2017, the year covered by the latest statistics – much longer than the average 18.2 minutes across the West Midlands.

This was the slowest time since the measurements began three years earlier.

Primary schools were the most accessible service – with journey times averaging 16 minutes – followed by food shops (20 minutes) and centres of employment with between 500 and 4,999 jobs (22.8 minutes).

At the other end of the scale were hospitals. Buses, trains or pounding the pavement would take you 53.4 minutes to reach them.

Across England, key services can be reached within 17.8 minutes on average, either by walking or travelling on public transport.

This compares to 17.0 minutes when records began in 2014.

The Department for Transport attributes the longer average journeys to changes to the data used in the calculations.

A Local Government Association spokesman said: "The next government needs to give councils long-term guaranteed infrastructure funding to deliver the improvements in our roads and public transport networks that we require.

"It should also provide ongoing investment in local bus services, which can be a lifeline for our most vulnerable residents, whether that is to go shopping, collect medication, attend doctor appointments or socialise with friends.

"Giving all councils the power to enforce moving traffic offences would also help to reduce congestion and improve journey times."