News story

26th January 2004

MP Launches Bid to Save Threatened Community Transport Schemes
 

Northavon MP Steve Webb has stepped in to back local community transport schemes threatened with drastic cutbacks following refusal of a government grant. The MP has already tabled a question in Parliament calling on the government to step in, and on Friday met leading figures from Vale Link Community Transport and Yate & Sodbury Community Transport to find out more about their financial plight. The Lib Dem MP has now written to South Gloucestershire Council urging them to find the funds to keep all of South Gloucestershire’s community transport schemes on the road. Steve Webb said:

“Community transport has been the one bright spot in transport policy in recent years. These services are greatly valued by those who use them, and provide a real lifeline to people with mobility problems. The staff and volunteers are highly committed and very often go well beyond the call of duty on behalf of local people. They deserve a secure long-term future instead of the hand-to-mouth existence that they currently face”.

In the most recent round of bidding for government grants, South Gloucestershire Council’s bid for £660,000 from the Rural Bus Challenge Grant scheme was turned down completely. The Government has said that it expects councils to decide whether and how to support local transport schemes. A small government grant is currently paid to South Gloucestershire Council to support rural bus services that would otherwise
not be commercially viable, but much of this is currently allocated to commercial bus operators.