18/12/13 – Press Release - West Sussex Labour councillors warn Tory council against plans to slash support for local bus services
Labour county councillors have challenged Tory county council intentions, set out at Friday's meeting of the full council, to make further cuts to spending on bus services across the county.
- In the proposed savings listed by the Cabinet Member, a "Review of Passenger Transport" is proposed to cut the council budget by £800,000 by 2015.
- This is despite, in late 2011, West Sussex County Council cutting £2 million from non-commercial bus routes, affecting an estimated two million bus journeys out of a total of 24 million then made every year in West Sussex.
- The council's leadership gave few details at the meeting, save for "further consideration of the scope and scale of discretionary elements of the service (e.g. 3-in-1, bus subsidy and enhancements in English National Concessionary Travel Scheme)".
- This potentially means that more bus routes, concessionary fares and help for students getting to their schools and colleges could be cut, reduced or even withdrawn.
- It was stated during the debate at Full Council that between 20 and 30% of West Sussex residents rely on public transport, as they have no access to a car.
Councillor Michael Jones (Lab, Southgate and Crawley Central) asked Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport Pieter Montyn (Con, The Witterings) what he meant by "further consideration".
Cllr Jones said:
"Does the Cabinet Member not realise that if he takes any more off this budget on these items he will be putting families and pensioners under increased financial pressure?”
"Families across the county rely on the 3 in 1 card. The cuts in socially funded bus routes last time have already had a damaging effect, with whole communities without bus services at evenings and Sundays.”
"Even residents in Crawley which has an excellent bus service are being forced late at night to wait an additional hour to get a service home.”
"Does he not realise that this will force people to spend money they can ill-afford on private hire, or force them to stay trapped within the four walls of their homes?"
Cllr Montyn's short response was merely:
"I'm aware of all that, but I'm also aware of the degree and measure of it."
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Jones said:
"The Tory leadership's response at county shows clearly that the only thing they're interested in is the bottom line on the balance sheet, not what's right for the community.”
"Budgets on buses have already been slashed as part of the Tory council's first round of savage cuts, and axing more money will only hit further bus routes, making parts of West Sussex even more isolated and poorly served by public transport than they are already. That must not be allowed to happen."