Passengers travelling on The Ridings Centre Wakefield FreeCityBus on Friday 1 August,- Yorkshire Day - were treated to curd tarts and folk music in celebration of the new sponsorship agreement between The Ridings Shopping Centre, Metro and Wakefield Council.

A parlour maid travelled on board the new The Ridings Centre liveried bus handing out traditional curd tarts, while local folk musician, John Harrison entertained passengers with a guitar medley of well known Yorkshire tunes.

Wakefield District Spokesperson for Metro Cllr Graham Phelps and The Ridings Centre Manager, Barbara Winston launched The Ridings Centre's specially-liveried Metro Connect FreeCityBus at Wakefield Westgate Station.

"The Wakefield FreeCityBus is an invaluable public service that makes it much easier for many of our customers to access the centre so we are very excited about teaming up with Metro and Wakefield Council to sponsor it,” said Barbara Winston.

“This joint initiative comes at a very exciting time for The Ridings Centre as we are already expanding and improving our shopping offer with a major £25m development currently in progress".

"The Ridings Centre is a particularly popular destination on the Wakefield FreeCityBus route and the centre's sponsorship, which is for two years, will help Metro and Wakefield Council to continue to provide the hugely popular free bus service for the people of Wakefield," said Cllr Phelps.

Cllr Denise Jeffery, Deputy Leader, Wakefield Council, with responsibility for regeneration, says the Council is delighted that the Ridings Shopping Centre is sponsoring a FreeCityBus.

"By working together like this, we can make Wakefield a city centre we are all proud of," she said.

Low-floor, 29-seat, single-deck FreeCityBuses run every ten minutes from 7.30am to 7.00pm Monday to Friday and from 8.30am to 5.00pm on Saturdays. The 2.7 mile route's 12 stops link key locations around Wakefield City Centre including the city's Westgate and Kirkgate train stations, the bus station, The Ridings Centre, shops and retail parks.

Metro and the Council set up Wakefield's FreeCityBus following the success of Metro's hugely popular Leeds FreeCityBus and the Huddersfield FreeTownBus. Later this year a fourth FreeBus service will be launched in Bradford.