Sheffield Green Party welcomes the long overdue movement towards public control of our buses, which is over 6 years in the making, and congratulates the campaigners at Better Buses for South Yorkshire for their victory. A consultation has opened, finally asking the people of South Yorkshire their opinion on what is best for their bus network, but it does not mention public ownership.
While public control via franchising is a needed step, we encourage people to push for full public ownership, cutting out the middle-men and instead running our own services, as we did prior to 1986, when our buses were the envy of Europe.
We urge residents from across South Yorkshire, and those from outside South Yorkshire who use buses in South Yorkshire to fill out the consultation in full: www.southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk/bus-reform Alternatively, if you don’t have access to a computer, you can call 0800 9520002 for more information.
Green Councillor for Ecclesall ward, Peter Gilbert said,
“I welcome the long overdue movement towards public control of our buses, and the success of the Better Buses for South Yorkshire campaign. This consultation, much like franchising, is a stop on the journey to better public transport, and I ask all residents to fill it out. However, franchising isn’t the final destination, and so I would urge the Councils, the Mayor and the people of South Yorkshire to push to follow London in investigating using new powers from Central Government to set up an authority-owned operator, to return to full public ownership of our buses.”
Disappointingly, at the same time as this badly needed step towards better buses is taken, the Labour government has decided to raise the bus fare cap by 50%, from £2 to £3, a decision that working people, mainly those less well-off, will have to bear the brunt of. Approximately 160,000 people in Sheffield don’t have access to a vehicle, mainly in less wealthy areas.
Sheffield Green Party demands the government reverse its course, pledge to reinstate the £2 bus fare cap and extend funding of it for the foreseeable future, instead of raising it. Greater London and Greater Manchester have their own fare caps and would become the only parts of England with a £2 cap on single bus fares.
Thomas Atkin-Withers, a Green campaigner on public transport from Jordanthorpe said,
“For a government that says it doesn’t want to increase costs for working people, it’s unbelievable that they are raising the bus fare cap to £3. As someone who comes from an extremely deprived area, where 46% of households don’t have access to a car, it’s clear who this is going to affect the most, and it isn’t the wealthy. We are in a situation where a government supposedly for working people would rather increase a basic living cost, rather than tax their wealthy friends. This shortsighted choice is only going to prevent people from using public transport.”
