Virtual Lancaster

Professor John Whitelegg

Local transport expert Professor John Whitelegg has hit out at proposals from Lancashire County Council to cut bus subsidies for evening services across the district.

As we reported just before Christmas, Lancashire County Council has launched a consultation on its proposal to make massive cuts to evening and Sunday bus services, which has already raised concerns from local MP Eric Ollerenshaw.

The Labour-run County Council, which is consulting on the plan,
says it will save £3.8m over the
next two years by withdrawing subsidies which enable the services to
operate across the county.

Bus services to Freehold, the Ridge the Marsh and Vale
estates in Lancaster and Skerton, Heysham, Morecambe, Carnforth, Hest
Bank Railway Station, Bolton-le-Sands
and Overton are among those that would be lost if the plan goes ahead.

“The bus cuts announced by the county council are a savage attack on public transport in this area,” says Lancaster-based Professor Whitelegg, who is a visiting Professor of Sustainable Transport at Liverpool John Moores University and Professor of Sustainable Development at University of York’s Stockholm Environment Institute. “They will damage the lives of older people and those who do not own a car and they are yet another attack on low income groups and those who live in rural areas.”

As for the County’s consultation, he says he doesn’t have any expectations that they will pay any notice to opposition to their plans.

“In line with all other county
council consultations, such as school closures, the results will not make a
jot of difference to the outcome,” he told virtual-lancaster.

The author of ten books and over 100 papers, John Whitelegg has worked on sustainable transport projects for 30
years, working
extensively on consultancy and research projects for the UK local
authorities, the European Commission, the Australian federal and state
governments and many private sector clients including Pfizer, the US
Pharmaceutical manufacturer.

He has worked extensively in China and India including projects
to produce transport strategies for Kolkata (Calcutta) and Beijing, and is clearly depressed that the vision of other countries when it comes to public transport is not reflected locally.

“The cuts show the reality that lies behind the political rhetoric,” he argues. “Politicians claim to support public transport and yet make savage cuts in bus services. They claim to support rail services and yet we have some of the highest fares in Europe.

“They claim to support walking and cycling as a contribution to health, reducing congestion and greenhouse gases – and then they support more road building, more traffic and more pollution.

“Lancaster already has a serious air pollution problem and has done nothing to improve air quality since it was given the statutory responsibility for improving air quality in 1995,” he notes. “29,000 people die every year in Britain as a result of poor air quality, the majority of which is traffic related, and some of these are from Lancaster.

“Cutting bus services will increase traffic levels and directly contradicts national and local transport and planning policy.”

Professor Whitelegg also feels it’s no coincidence that the propose public transport cuts have been announced just as the County gets the full go ahead for new road building.

“The proposed cuts to bus services have come very rapidly on the heels of the
final approval for the Heysham M6 Link Road,” he notes. “The County Council is facing huge budget cuts from a socially irresponsible
government and these cuts will produce harm and misery for bus users and
those who need to use other vital public services like care for the
elderly.

“The county has taken a big ‘hit’ with central
governement cuts but in its determination to get the bypass built and
against a background of its own admission that it will not reduce
congestion it has put £17 million of its own money into the bypass to
top up the government’s contribution to the scheme. This shift of
resources to a road and away from buses is a clear attack on the most
vulnerable in society.

“The County Council has chosen to transfer
resources from public transport to car owners,” he argues, “and national statistics
show that this is a direct transfer from the relatively poor to the
relatively rich.”

• The consultation period ends on 10 January with the 2014 budget
decided at a full County Council meeting on 20 February. The county
council would like to hear any comments you may have on the proposals
that have been put forward: www3.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/consultation/responses/response.asp?ID=225

• Campaign for Better Transport “Save Our Buses” Camapign 

• View the Campaign for Better Transport’s interactive bus cuts map
which makes transparent the extent of the problem of local authority funding
cuts to buses. This map is a crowd sourcing project, which means the CBT are
asking you to help us track bus cuts 

County Council documents on affected services (PDF links)

• Appendix 1 Lancaster
• Appendix 10 Services operating into Blackburn with Darwen
• Appendix 11 Hyndburn
• Appendix 12 Burnley
• Appendix 13 Pendle
• Appendix 14 Rossendale
• Appendix 15 Services operating into Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cumbria and North Yorkshire
• Appendix 2 Wyre
• Appendix 3 Ribble Valley
• Appendix 4 Services operating into Blackpool
• Appendix 5 Fylde
• Appendix 6 Preston
• Appendix 7 South Ribble
• Appendix 8 West Lancashire
• Appendix 9 Chorley
• Proposed withdrawal of subsidised bus services in Lancashire (Word document)