A GOVERNMENT transport minister has vowed to look into valley bus problems.
Norman Baker MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Regional and Local Transport, made the promise as he delivered a House of Commons update on plans for a £560m local sustainable transport fund.
During the Commons debate MP for the region Jason McCartney asked Mr Baker if he would meet councillors to thrash out ways to help frustrated bus users.
Mr McCartney said: “The three Holme Valley South councillors wrote to him inviting him to visit and discuss local bus services.
“So I’ve invited him to meet them to see how this £560m fund can be used to help improve services in the area.
“It will be great if he comes up here, but the location of the meeting is yet to be decided.”
“Services are being cut back and reduced all the time and it’s a question of what services are needed rather than just which can make a profit.
“We will discuss bus services in the valleys and talk about getting the right sizes of buses going to the right places.
“Hopefully within this fund there’s money allocated for this type of project.”
Veteran Holme Valley councillor Ken Sims said everyone was frustrated by a lack of action amid years of cut backs by the main bus operator First.
He said: “We’re fed up of trying to sort something out for the buses in Holme Valley south. Metro’s not doing anything and the council’s not doing anything.
“We think if we meet him we can put some ideas together and make him realise what’s happening.
“Hopefully if the Coalition Government get their thinking caps on they might start to listen to what the public want.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to meet him face-to-face and let him meet some of the members of the public to hear it first hand.”
The bid for Government intervention comes as Metro steps up its plan to regulate West Yorkshire’s bus operators with new ‘Quality Bus Contracts’.
It is hoped the contracts will force bus companies to offer a better service and prevent them from axing routes that aren’t profitable.
But Clr Sims said councillors had lost patience with the Leeds-based public transport authority.
He added: “I would have thought the £18m Kirklees pays to Metro should help subsidise the routes we need.
“The quality contracts should help but I’m still not happy with Metro and the way it’s formed.
“It’s old hat people who run it who used to work on the buses and politics come into it, which I’m not happy with.”