Local Transport

Written by Kirsty Williams AM and published in Mid Wales Journal on Friday 28th March 2008 on Fri 4th Apr 2008

The Plaid-Labour Government is certainly not letting-up in its affront on public services. Having struck another blow to the abilities of local authorities to deliver frontline services, with the abysmal budget settlement, where Powys was at the bottom of the pile; they are still marching on in their destruction of local provisions.

The latest victim to this persistent force is local transport and particularly buses. I am sure you will be all too aware that last autumn the Westminster Government raised the price of fuel duty by 2p per litre. In England commercial bus companies were rebated the cost of this increase in order to ensure that essential bus services were preserved. However in Wales the Assembly Government did not see fit to do likewise and commercial bus companies are having to shell out the additional money from their own pockets, this works out at about an extra £700,000 in the 2007/08 period alone.

This is the first time that the Welsh Government has decided not to raise the Bus Service Operators' Grant (BSOG) in line with fuel duty and means that Welsh bus owners are now at a disadvantage to their English counterparts and are considerably worse off than last year. In B&R we are only too used to bus routes being pulled or reduced due to their stated 'lack of economic viability' and clearly this new situation will not bode well for the future.

The Government's actions seem to contradict not only common sense but also their stated environmental and transport policy. They speak of sustainability and placing bus services at the heart of their transport agenda, and yet their action will hit areas such as ours the hardest where many, particularly elderly residents, are dependent on buses as their main mode of travel.

My fear is not only for the companies who will have to struggle to find this extra cash but also for the marginally commercial services that so far have managed to escape termination, which will feel the first negative affects of this tax. It is all too possible that as a result of this decision either ticket prices will rise or services will be cut.

With Powys County Council still reeling from the Government's poor settlement they are unlikely to be able to assist in picking up the tab and I truly fear that if the Assembly Government does not back down and listen to the very vocal calls to increase the BSOG it will ultimately be passengers who are left to pay the price.

Along with the bus companies and their representatives I have been calling directly on both the First Minister and the Minister for Transport to increase the BSOG as they have done in the past and we will certainly maintain this pressure to ensure that bus services in Powys do not suffer yet further. With Powys' aging population and the monster that is climate change rearing its ugly head higher and higher what we need is more sustainable public transport and more buses not less.