Huddersfield’s Free Town Bus could face axe
Sep 23 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
“This is merely the first in a series of cuts that will affect people’s everyday lives.”
Clr Cooper, who leads the four-strong Green group on Kirklees Council, believes the Free Town Bus is valuable.
“It’s a popular service, particularly with the elderly and people with mobility problems,” he said.
“Huddersfield is on a slope so a free bus is a handy thing for some people.”
The service, which was launched in October 2006, stops at the University of Huddersfield, Queensgate Market and the bus and railway stations.
By May of this year, the bus had carried 1.1 million passengers, including many students.
Matt Christie, president of the University of Huddersfield’s Students’ Union criticised the proposed cut yesterday.
He said: “The Free Town Bus is a valuable service for everyone, not just students. It’s a well-used service and I can’t see any justification for cutting it.”
WYITA’s Executive Board – which is made up of 22 councillors from the five local authorities in West Yorkshire – will meet in Leeds tomorrow to discuss the cuts plan.
The authority plans to spend £174m on buses and trains in West Yorkshire during this financial year.
But £120m of the budget – including rail spending and concessionary fares – is classed as mandatory, meaning any cuts will have to come from other areas.
A report drawn up for the board says that WYITA will not know the scale of the cuts until the Government announces its Comprehensive Spending Review next month.
The report says: “All directors are considering how they could achieve a 5% year-on-year reduction.
“What is clearly emerging from this is that it is not possible to make reductions on this scale without a severe impact on service delivery. This impact is magnified by the limited proportion of the budget which is discretionary.”
Scrapping the five free town bus services
Closing bus stations in Batley, Cleckheaton and Ossett
Cleaning bus stations less frequently and reducing the budget for bus shelter repairs
Reducing subsidies to bus companies for running services at off-peak times. The proposal could lead to fewer buses running early in the morning, late in the evening and on Sundays
Closing travel centres and reducing the opening hours of the telephone information service Metroline
