Express bus drops fixed stop at Brokelandsheia

The Sørlandet / Agder news of the past 48 hours focus on the removal of a fixed express bus stop at Brokelandsheia, the increase in lobster along the coast of Agder county, and language difficulties reported in care services in Kristiansand. Several local items round out the picture, in Kristiansand and Lillesand.

Sørlandet news: express bus drops its fixed stop at Brokelandsheia

The fixed stops of the express bus at Brokelandsheia will be removed from 12 October, reports NRK Sørlandet / Agder. In practice, the bus will no longer stop on a systematic basis: it will only stop if a passenger has booked a seat or given notice in advance. The mayor of Gjerstad, Steinar Pedersen, challenges this arrangement. "A shopping centre with up to several hundred jobs is arriving, and it is very bad timing not to have this bus service," he told the public broadcaster, adding that 150 new homes are also planned in the area. He is calling for fixed stops to be maintained, as has always been the case in his view.

On the operator's side, Vy points to low passenger numbers. Communications manager Kaja Rynning Moe told NRK Sørlandet / Agder that, comparing September and October of the previous year, 112 passengers used the stop. Yet Vy's bus passes Brokelandsheia 30 times per working day. The issue therefore pits a need for service linked to a local economic project against what the operator considers insufficient passenger numbers.

More lobster in the sea than in the past twenty years

On the environmental front, the results of stricter regulation are being felt. According to NRK Sørlandet / Agder, marine researchers are announcing a rarely seen finding: there are more lobsters in the sea than at any time in the past twenty years. Tighter rules and the expansion of conservation areas explain this trend. The regional outlet presents this as a concrete reason to hope for better catches for fishermen and recreational boaters along the coast of Agder county.

Language and care: three in ten nurses report problems every week

In the health sector, NRK Sørlandet / Agder relays the account of Kirsti Smeby, who lives with her husband Leif in a care home in Kristiansand. She describes situations where staff do not understand Norwegian. "When they come to put us to bed in the evening, many of them don't know what a duvet is," she says. She adds that some employees answer "I understand" before doing something other than what was asked, and believes that anyone working with patients should take a Norwegian course.

These accounts come against a documented backdrop. A survey by the trade magazine Sykepleien, cited by NRK Sørlandet / Agder, shows that three in ten nurses encounter language problems at work every week. Of the 1,100 nurses who responded, 15% say these difficulties have led to harm to a patient. Misunderstandings create extra work and cause errors in verbal instructions as well as in written reports. The Local Norway also reports that the Norwegian authorities plan to spend an additional 96 million kroner on language courses and integration.

📌 Local briefs

• A fire broke out in a bathroom of a housing unit on Thursday late afternoon; the occupants of the unit and of two neighbouring dwellings were evacuated and one resident was treated after inhaling smoke (NRK Sørlandet / Agder).
• Lillesand slaughterhouse Jens Eide is criticised in a Mattilsynet report for selling meat intended for dogs as food for human consumption; an immediate sales ban has been issued and the company speaks of a "wrong formulation" (Fædrelandsvennen / NRK Sørlandet / Agder).
• Passenger Karen Torkildsen says she had to be pulled on board the urban ferry Kolbjørn by the captain due to the lack of suitable facilities; the operator refuses to pay the 500-kroner daily fee for the municipal quays, citing the same lack of accessibility (NRK Sørlandet / Agder).
• A man in his thirties from Kristiansand has been acquitted of attempted murder by Agder court of appeal and sentenced to four years in prison for grievous bodily harm after a knife attack in Vågsbygd (Fædrelandsvennen / NRK Sørlandet / Agder).
• Fædrelandsvennen reports concern in a Kristiansand neighbourhood, where several residents say they are frightened, as well as a transfer of 16 million kroner to a personal account (Fædrelandsvennen).

Sources: NRK Sørlandet / Agder, Fædrelandsvennen, The Local Norway — Period: 01 October 2026 and 02 October 2026