The Ward Forum
Bus services were one of the main items at the Skircoat ward forum on 30 March, in particular the withdrawal of the 36 bus service. An officer from Metro, Neil Holt, said that the current bus network was the best they can offer in Calderdale. He claimed that the new service is adequate for the people catching it.
There were a lot of angry comments from members of the public
Pauline Nash
Pauline Nash, candidate for Skircoat ward, referred to the survey undertaken by the Liberal Democrat team. She said that It was quite obvious that there was a roomful of people saying the buses were not adequate. Some people were having to leave for work an hour earlier. There were two main issues with the service now being offered. First not frequent enough, and second does not start soon enough and ends too soon.
Conclusions of the bus survey (download full report below)
Hardship is being caused to older and less able people who do not drive, as well as school and university students. Many people who replied to the survey pointed out they are using their car more, which is environmentally harmful.
The main issues raised are that :-
- People would use the bus service more if more frequent services were available
- That 20% of those surveyed always considered the buses to run late, with 62% saying that buses ran mostly on time
- The overwhelming view was that deterioration in bus services was unacceptable at a time when trying to reduce a carbon footprint.
People’s thoughts on the new services provided were
- Too infrequent
- Not reliable
- Overcrowded.
This was also borne out of feedback from the residents of Copley Village at a meeting of the Copley Residents Association held on 1st March 2010.
Recommendations – What needs to be done
Cllr Stephen Gow with the 36 before it stopped
Cllr Stephen Gow, report author, states: From the responses that the Liberal Democrats have received, there is a customer base in the area to re-introduce a more frequent service during peak times to at least half hourly. This could either be done by
- Introducing new services
- Diverting existing services from the main Huddersfield-Halifax route
You can read the full report below:
What next?
Skircoat Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for a better bus service for local residents.
You can download the full report here: