Rural bus passengers loose services

Members of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive could have gone for a more modest cuts package that would have saved the authority around £1.3m but instead they backed plans for more extensive cutbacks.

A report to committee members also warned a black hole in the authority’s budget, following Government cuts, means further bus subsidies could be axed from 2015.

The decision will affect more than 150 services, including ones involving school transport, across the county. Some will be completely withdrawn, while others will be reduced, timetables revised or in some cases some replacements offered. The reductions will begin to take effect from April.

More than 2,000 people responded to public talks on the issue with many raising fears the move would stop people being able to get to school, the shops or use other services.

Age UK director, Caroline Abrahams said: “Many older people rely on their bus passes for everyday trips to the shops, to get to GP and hospital appointments or to visit friends.”

County Councillor Carl Les, the authority’s deputy leader, said after the meeting: “We are all very conscious of the potential that these reductions have for people in very rural areas, in terms of isolation and loneliness. These issues are very much in our minds, and we will do all we can to mitigate against them.”

The county council is reviewing all areas of spending as it tries to find savings of more than £70m in the next four years.

Yesterday it said members had also agreed to lobby Government over concessionary fare issues, investigate alternative funding for services and to conduct a review of local bus services to establish how they could be put on a more sustainable footing.