Transport Cuts Hit The Most Vulnerable

The Green Party calls for transport re-think as report shows vulnerable are worst hit by bus cuts

The report said “Vulnerable people especially the young, the old, the disabled and the poor will be the hardest hit by the withdrawal of bus services”


The Green Party has called on the Coalition to re-think its transport policy following today’s report on bus services, which shows that cuts are disproportionately effecting the most vulnerable.

The report from the Transport Committee, entitled ‘Bus Services after the Spending Review’, reveals that local authority cuts to transport budgets have seen the young, old and disabled hit hardest. The cross party committee also criticised the lack of consultation undertaken before 70% of councils reduced subsidised services or raised fares. [1]

Alan Francis, Green Party transport spokesperson, said:

“The Select Committee report should be a wake-up call to government and councils that are cutting the funding for local bus services. Vulnerable people, especially the young, the old, the disabled and the poor, will be the hardest hit by the withdrawal of bus services.

“These people depend on bus services in order to access jobs, shops, education and health care, and are precisely the people that the government should be looking out for, rather than making their lives more difficult.”

The report shows that the Coalition is failing to fulfil its pledge to provide better value for money in public transport [2], with prices set to rise above the rate of inflation, and further loss of services expected. [3]


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Notes

Transport Committee Report, ‘Bus Services after the Spending Review’, available in full here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmtran/750/75002.htm

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14480391

2. www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/RP11-22.pdf

3. http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/bus-service-cuts-threaten-most-vulnerable/