In an apparent contradiction of its aim of being a voice for rural life and playing its part improving rural services including transport links, South Cambridgeshire District Council Cabinet has said it has no plans to make a corporate response to the ongoing consultation on the County Council cuts to rural bus subsidy. 
The statement was made by the Economic Development Portfolio Holder Cllr Nick Wright at Full Council meeting that took place on 24 November 2011, in response to my question which was as follows:
“One of the aims of South Cambridgeshire District Council is our commitment to providing a voice for rural life, playing our part improving rural services including transport links. Our transport links are under severe threat by recent bus subsidy removal and the quality of life for some residents has fallen. Is this authority submitting a response to the County Council bus consultation on behalf of South Cambridgeshire residents, and is it publicising the consultation to ensure residents are aware of it?“
The answer given by Cllr Wright, though not unexpected, was still acutely disappointing, and went something like this:
“The county councils’ review of subsidised bus services is a public consultation largely requiring local level detail about specific routes and how they are valued by service users. Our council has taken various strategic level opportunities to comment on the proposed changes and is involved in the work being done by Cambridge Future transport in finding alternative solutions”
He then went on further to say that:
“The county council consultation is being publicised in a number of ways. In this district in the weekly bulleting, through parish councils by the community support assistant, contacts with voluntary service and in groups and forums linked to the community transport strategy. The consultation ends on Friday 9th December at 1600 hrs and every member should have been sent a copy of the consultation. It is very important, it is so different in each area, it is specific to wards and their requirement.”
What are these comments that have been made and at what strategic level were they made? What work is being done by Cambridgeshire Future Transport that will benefit the district – definitely not this micro-franchising idea that is currently undergoing trial at taxpayers expense! Sidestepping making a corporate response for the reasons stated above is not what we expect of a Cabinet that is meant to be looking out for our interests.
In my supplementary question, I asked specifically if we could be given assurance that the District Council will write to the County to condemn the cuts to rural bus subsidy that have been made and are being planned. Cllr Wright still insisted it was a ward specific issue and it is key for members in wards that were affected to make those responses.
He said “It is not this councils final decision, it is County that will make the decision, this council is involved in looking at alternative future strategy. This Council has not planned to make a corporate response to the County, and that it is up to local members to make those responses”.
Here in lies the crux of the matter.
- The questions in the public consultation are not well designed and will not give the county all the information it needs to be able to make an informed judgement on whether to cut rural bus subsidy or which routes to cut it from. The Campaign for Better Transport has correctly highlighted various flaws in the consultation, of both a technical and policy nature.
- Some services have already been cut, as a result of removal of rural bus subsidy and it is a matter for public record that the County Council has not plans to reinstate these whilst the consultation is ongoing.
- By removing rural bus subsidy from some routes (Citi4 for example), passengers getting on the bus at Cambourne and Caldecote now have to pay double what the fares were before subsidy removal. This route is not even in the list of contracted bus services that the County put forward in its consultation.
- By not making a formal response of any sort publicly for the record, or in any way that residents can see, and instead relying on local members to make the representation, a fact that until then had not been communicated to the members, the cabinet was effectively signalling its support of the proposed (and implemented) cuts to rural bus subsidy, and to put it bluntly, letting its residents down – very badly indeed!!
The portfolio holder, had he wanted to be transparent, could actually have specified one or more of the specific strategic level opportunities through which he stated that the district had responded to the county on cuts to rural bus subsidy. In addition, by refusing to even consider making a corporate response, he has cast some serious doubts on the cabinet support of residents of this district in their current situation.
I find this state of affairs very unsatisfactory and a dereliction of duty by South Cambridgeshire Cabinet, all the more so considering the manner in which the decision on rural bus subsidy cuts was taken and implemented by the County Council cabinet, as highlighted in my previous post on the matter
This response to rural bus subsidy cuts is further compounded by the County Council’s apparent confusion about the aim of the consultation. At the SCDC scrutiny meeting that took place on 3rd November2011, Cllr Steven Criswell, Cambridgeshire County Council Portfolio Holder for Infrastructure Services said, ‘The bus consultation is not for people who don’t ride buses.’
The statement is in contradiction to the sentiment expressed in the consultation letter sent out from the County inviting responses to the Consultation on rural bus subsidy. The statement was given in response to Cllr Liz Heazell who pointed out that some of the questions were irrelevant, some were limited in scope, and that on the whole, there were doubts as to whether the questions had been badly framed, and then asked if Cllr Criswell was confident that the county would be able to gather enough relevant information to enable it make informed judgement.
The Campaign for Better Transport has correctly highlighted various flaws in the consultation on cuts to rural bus subsidy, of both a technical and policy nature, but this does not seem to have any impact at all on the SCDC Cabinet. Instead, SCDC cabinet is focussing on alternatives, including the much publicised “Community Transport” option. SCDC is expecting that communities will pick up from where the county left off, and extend the use of their current schemes. However, by his own admission at the Scrutiny Meeting of 3rd November 2011, Cllr Wright confirmed that the voluntary organisations running the Community Transport services are not being given any financial assistance from South Cambridgeshire District council. In effect, as I pointed out to Cllr Wright, SCDC is expecting these voluntary services to “run on empty” whilst picking up the pieces left by the County Council. Now, how can that be a solution to the problem of removal of cuts to rural bus subsidy??
It is my hope that the Leader, Deputy Leader and Economic Development Portfolio Holder will reconsider, and in the interest of the residents of South Cambridgshire, make a public, formal corporate response to the County on the review of rural bus subsidy cuts. SCDC Cabinet should not hide behind the flawed structure of the consultation itself, but make its point clear about the subsidy removal as a whole.
The removal of bus subsidies will not contribute to the economic development of this district, nor anywhere else in this country for that matter. It is penalising people who can’t afford to own a car, or run a car, the elderly, the young etc., isolating them and causing them misery. Even the Los Angeles Times has carried a story about the catastrophic effects that the cuts are having in some parts of England. It is contributing to rural isolation of a large swathe of our district.
I would encourage everyone to fill out the consultation on cuts to rural bus subsidy which can be found online at : http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/busreview . The deadline for all responses is 9th December 2011 at 4.00PM.
There are services that have had subsidies removed, but are not on the list provided by the county council in this consultation on cuts to rural bus subsidy. Another flaw that has been picked up. If yours is one of those, write in to the council anyway.
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