Forums

Posted: 20-09-2013 20:24 Post subject:

OK Rynner -you've got to get out there and make friends with those of your neighbours who've got cars! Smile

Posted: 20-09-2013 20:54 Post subject:

Posted: 20-09-2013 21:21 Post subject:

Any chance of organising some sort of share-a-taxi scheme?

Posted: 25-09-2013 08:02 Post subject:

Councillor's fury at Falmouth bus cuts
11:00am Tuesday 24th September 2013 in News

Cornwall and Falmouth Town Councillor Candy Atherton has reacted with anger after learning that First Buses plan to chop bus services across Falmouth.

“I have been hearing rumours recently of cuts to our bus services in Falmouth and have been chasing First. They have now confirmed that from the end of September Nos 41 and 88 will cease to serve around the town. The services will come from Camborne and Truro respectively but no longer collect people from around the town.
“The bus operator claims less than a 100 people use the services, something I find hard to believe, while costing £200,000 to run.

“I am appalled that First have not told the Town Council or ensured that people knew what was happening. Perhaps they knew the upset this would cause! I also hear they plan to axe the town services from November of the 67/68 and 68A.
“I have already been contacted by local people who have heard the rumours and are worried and concerned about how they will cope. Many people in the town rely on buses to get around and the option of driving is not available to them.
“Older people and those without a car will struggle and we will end up with more cars parked on our already congested roads as people are forced to get a car. This will trap people in their homes. This is bad news for Falmouth and I call on First to reconsider before the services are withdrawn.
“Make your voice heard and ensure that First understand just how their decisions will impact on many in the town”.

Falmouth Town Councillor Brod Ross said “I am disgusted and appalled at this situation and by the lack of consultation by First. So many people in the town depend on these services, particularly the elderly and disabled”.

The services are not publicly funded by Cornwall Council and the changes are a commercial decision over which neither Cornwall or Falmouth Town Councils has no control.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10692599.Councillor_s_fury_at_Falmouth_bus_cuts/?ref=mr

That last sentence must be wrong. Bus pass holders can use their passes on the routes mentioned, which presumably means that Cornwall Council have been subsidising them. I don't think First were letting us ride for free! Twisted Evil

Posted: 30-09-2013 15:11 Post subject:

I hadn't heard back from my MP, so I was thinking of writing again, but today her reply arrived. Even so, I rather expected a load of pompous bullsh*t about 'cuts having to be made', etc, rather like the letter I got once from Seb Coe when he was MP here.

But Mrs. Sarah Newton's letter was very sympathetic towards non-drivers and the elderly, and she seems to blame the council for making hasty cuts in anticipation of further government cuts. She wants the council to take immediate action to mitigate the mess that is 'of their own making', etc etc. Nice to see them get a hard time, but will anything actually change? Sadly, I doubt it, in the light of previous experience.

I'll keep you up-dated.

(If times get hard, I could try auctioning off my collection of letters from MPs!)

Posted: 02-10-2013 09:00 Post subject:

The bigger picture:

Number of bus journeys in England fell 1.4% last year
By Richard Westcott, BBC transport correspondent

There were 70 million fewer journeys on England's buses last year, a fall of 1.4%, according to new official data.
Stripping out London, where bus travel has been booming for years, the decline is far higher, at 2.5%.

About half of England's bus journeys are in London, where public funding is high, usage is healthy, and the industry is regulated.
However, campaigners have warned that in the rest of the country the situation is bleak.
Cuts to funding, and therefore services, plus inflation-busting fare rises (up 4.7% and higher in rural areas) are hitting people hard, they say.

Campaigners warn of the consequences for young people trying to find a job, but who do not have a car, and for older people who rely on buses to stay mobile.

There are about 4.6 billion passenger journeys on local buses every year in England, more than double the number of journeys on trains.
However, Tuesday's figures show that mileage on services that are subsidised by local authorities has fallen further, by 17% in the last two years.

It means that as government grants to local authorities have dwindled, so have the buses that need to be supported by the taxpayer.
Martin Abrams, from the Campaign for Better Transport, said the figures "show the dire consequences of government cuts to support for buses".
He said: "Year-on-year, we are seeing higher fares and fewer services. This is a false economy, preventing people from taking up job opportunities and hitting the poorest in society with massive hikes in travel costs."

Rachel Bromley, from the charity Sustrans, said: "Currently, a quarter of English households and almost two-thirds of job-seekers do not have access to a car.
"For these individuals affordable and reliable public transport is vital, particularly as two out of five jobseekers [c]ite lack of transport as a barrier to getting a job."

However, not all areas outside are seeing a decline. Bus services in Brighton, Oxfordshire and Poole have shown consistent growth. And Tuesday's government report also highlights a strong long-term link between a fall in bus use and more people getting cars.

Also, the government says some bus operators have stepped in to run services even after the subsidy has been cut.

Transport minister Norman Baker says his department has provided widespread support for services, including protecting the Bus Service Operators Grant since 2010 and providing new funding streams such as the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, the Better Bus initiative and the fourth round of the Green Bus Fund.

He told the BBC: "The government spends well over £1bn per year on concessionary travel and other support for buses every year.
"We are protecting bus subsidy and targeting it where it is needed most as well as making significant new funding available for bus improvements. The Department for Transport strongly supports bus travel. It is true that some councils have noticeably cut bus services, but others have not."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24234265

Posted: 08-10-2013 08:26 Post subject:

Bus cuts: 'Try living in Zennor with no car'.
By The Cornishman.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013.

"COME and spend a fortnight in Zennor without a bus service this winter."
That's the invitation from one village resident to Cornwall councillors as they try to come up with a rescue plan following the decision by Western Greyhound to withdraw their entire Penzance and Hayle bus operation from November 3.

The announcement by the bus company was made as Cornwall Council looks to save around £500,000 from its bus budget for the current financial year.

Routes 501 (Penzance to Land's End), 504 (Penzance to St Just), 507 (St Just to Gurnard's Head), 508 (Penzance to St Ives), 509 (St Just to Penzance via Tregeseal and Sancreed), 512 (Penzance circular), 513 (Leedstown to Penzance) and 515 (Gwithian to Penzance via Hayle and St Erth) will all go.

Catherine Penhaul, from Zennor (the 508 route), proposes that Cornwall councillors and officers actually experience what it is like, living in a remote village with no bus service.
"I suggest that those making these decisions come and spend a fortnight in Zennor this winter," she says.
"Leave your car behind and get a feel of what it's like to be cut off from essential services, leisure activities and your friends."

An online petition calling for an end to the cuts to bus subsidies in west Cornwall has been set up by Katherine Gray and has already been signed by around 450 people.
Ms Gray said: "To drastically cut rural supported bus services will cause unemployment, lower employment prospects, damage the local economies of rural communities and has the potential to cause social exclusion for many people living in these areas."

In addition, parishioners in Sancreed are being asked to make their views known to the parish clerk ahead of their next meeting on October 15, and in Zennor they are being urged to contact Peter Marsh, Cornwall Council's interim corporate director for the environment; transport portfolio holder Bert Biscoe and local MP Andrew George. However Cornwall Council says it is working on a plan with other bus services "to replace some of the services lost when Western Greyhound decided to withdraw from west Cornwall".
"We will be making an announcement this week but cannot give a categorical date as to when this will take place at this stage."

Cornwall councillor Roy Mann, whose Ludgvan ward stretches from Eastern Green, up to Ludgvan and north of Penzance across to Morvah, said he had received a number of letters from people who rely on the 508 service.
"They need the service to get to work and it has to be replaced," he said.
"I have taken the matter up with the transport department and am optimistic that the route will be replaced in some form."

The petition can be signed by going to cornishman.co.uk/buscuts

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Bus-cuts-Try-living-Zennor-car/story-19874533-detail/story.html

Things in Falmouth are rather confused. Some changes have already taken place, but maybe my local bus is safe after all - a new time-table was published at the end of September showing the route still operating, despite the earlier threat to stop it in November. But I heard a new rumour yesterday that the evening services might be cut from then. (That I could live with, however.)

Posted: 08-10-2013 08:34 Post subject:

Used to cycle around that area on a Claude Butler racing bike. The roads took their toll on it.

Posted: 09-10-2013 09:22 Post subject:

The Falmouth Packet has published a 'full' list of the bus changes in Cornwall.
http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10724298.Full_changes_to_Cornwall_s_bus_system___including_replacement_services/?ref=mr

But my local routes are to be 'replaced' by 'new' services from November 3rd. It was hardly worth including them in the timetable issued at the end of September, then.

"This is your new bus timetable - it will self-destruct in one month..." Evil or Very Mad

So we're still none the wiser... Sad