Coast 'will lose most in bus cuts'

Mark Branagan

THE Yorkshire Coast is being unfairly targeted in proposed county-wide bus cuts which will hit commuters, shift workers, pensioners, hospital patients, and disabled people in outlying villages, council chiefs warned yesterday.

North Yorkshire County Council currently spends almost 6.5m a year in subsidising local bus services, with the aim of ensuring that as many of its residents as possible have access to quality public transport.

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About 25 per cent of the current network is funded by the county, carrying over four million passengers per year.

But County Hall is having to reduce expenditure by 600,000 from April because of the public spending squeeze. A final decision on these cuts is still to be made and county council chiefs are currently consulting stakeholders.

But Scarborough Council officials say too much of the burden is being heaped on passengers in the Scarborough, Whitby and Filey areas compared with other parts of North Yorkshire.

A total of 33 bus services across the county will be affected, and of these 12 services operate within the Scarborough area. Six of those 12 are operating within the main urban area of Scarborough town.

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The service reductions involve the withdrawal of Sunday, Bank Holiday and evening bus services.

Head of technical services John Riby said: “From these details it is clear that a substantial number of the service reductions affect Scarborough borough. The consultation does not show unaffected services.

“But if, as the county say, 25 per cent of all bus services across the entire county are funded by them, then it seems a disproportionate part of the required savings on services are being targeted in the Scarborough borough area.”

Two issues were of particular concern – the removal of evening services to and from long-distance destinations and reductions in the town and villages service, he added.

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He continued: “These reductions will have an impact on the towns and villages economy and importantly access to services.

“The complete removal of certain Sunday services is restrictive on people’s activities.

“ Those who rely on the services to commute will be affected, particularly shift workers and those with no alternative means of travel.

“In addition, the reductions contrast with the county council’s stated objectives in its Local Transport Plan, to encourage use of public transport instead of reliance on the private car.”

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Vulnerable people could also be hit by another cost-saving measure to restrict the periods they can use their bus passes under the concessionary travel scheme.

The major impact of the county council’s proposed reduction would fall on those concessionary passholders who travel in the 9am-9.30am period on weekdays.

In past reviews of the scheme undertaken by the county council, there had been calls for the time period be extended – particularly for disabled passholders, who need to travel to training or work placements before 9am.

Mr Riby said: “Passholders generally would not welcome a reduction in the time period and some will be significantly disadvantaged, especially where travel before 9.30am is essential due to work, training, hospital appointments.”

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North Yorkshire County Council has already stated that it will not comment on how the proposed changes might affect individual areas, such as Scarborough, during the consultation process.

A spokesman said yesterday: “All we can say is we will consider all these views as part of the consultations on the changes to the bus service. A final decision will be made in November.”