Don't miss the bus! (Colne Valley Liberal Democrats)

Colne Valley Liberal Democrats <info@colnevalleylibdems.org.uk>

Don't miss the bus!

October 16, 2009 7:30 PM

http://www.colnevalleylibdems.org.uk/>Nicola Turner to propose motion on bus services at Regional Conference

Colne Valley LibDems just love a good debate. For the third time in a row, a motion proposed by the Constituency Party is to be debated at the Yorkshire & the Humber Region LibDems Conference on Saturday 7 November, which is being held at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York.

After our motions on plastic carrier bags in Autumn 2008 and health care deficiencies in Spring 2009, the topic this time is LOCAL BUS SERVICES IN THE UK. The motion is as follows:

"Conference notes that over 3.5 billion local bus journeys are made annually in Great Britain (excluding London, which is a special case).

Conference notes that this figure has essentially remained unchanged overall during the past decade, while urban road congestion has grown worse and worse.

Conference believes that local bus services have a vital role to play in relieving road congestion, especially given that three quarters of all the journeys that people make - by whatever means - are less than 5 miles.

Conference is forced to conclude that the privatisation experiment is in grave danger of collapse while the providers continue to pursue profit and Local Authorities remain emasculated and removed from the decision-making process.

Conference therefore calls upon Government to amend current legislation so that Local Authorities, through the new Integrated Transport Authorities (ITAs), will take ownership of and responsibility for

Local bus routes and timings
Bus priority schemes
Ticketing, including electronic smart cards
Integration of bus and rail services
Local infrastructure and local electronic information

In this way, Conference believes that the privatised bus and rail operators will be able to run the radial routes between urban centres on a franchised basis and that the ITAs will own and operate local, integrated services either in partnership with the private operators or independently."

The motion will be proposed by our PPC, http://www.colnevalleylibdems.org.uk/>Nicola Turner who has campaigned for better local public transport since her election in 2006.