My post bag is full of complaints about the state of bus services in County Durham. They report buses not turning up, broken down or simply cancelled with communities left stranded. Because of a lack of bus services, I have a constituent who will have to find more than £60 a week in taxi fares to take her to work just two miles away, and bring her home again. I do not believe her situation is unique.
Today, bus companies, like Arriva will run buses where there is subsidy from the taxpayer. If that subsidy is withdrawn Arriva simply withdraws the bus. This is where there is a clash of needs. A clash between the commercial bus company which needs to make a profit and where it doesn’t the bus is either withdrawn or re-routed and the need of the worker in villages such as Bishop Middleham and Middleton St George who need the service to get to work; the student who needs to get to college, or the elderly person who needs to visit hospital.
The decline in bus travel picked up speed after recent Government announcements made an overall cut in local authority revenue expenditure by 28%; changed the way concessionary travel is calculated and cut by 20% the Bus Service Operators Grant.
This has led to 70% of local authorities cutting support for bus services. So Durham County Council, which has to find £125 million in cuts over the next four years, is in a similar position to many other local authorities and has reduced its subsidy to bus companies, particularly Arriva, who in turn are withdrawing services.
The fundamental problem is the decision taken back in 1985 to privatise bus services. It may have seemed to some like a good idea at the time, but now we know differently. There was always room for the private sector in the bus service industry. TMS proved the point. But those who wanted privatisation didn’t highlight the fact that privatised buses run on a commercial basis still require public subsidy. All I am asking the bus companies to do is what they set out to do in the first place: provide a service.