Elisabeth Wilson being congratulated by Lord David Shutt

Elisabeth Wilson was adopted as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Halifax at a meeting at North Bridge Leisure Centre on Monday night. Lord David Shutt presided at the meeting.

Elisabeth Wilson attack the Labour government’s mismanagement of the economy, which has led to a £13,000 debt for every man, woman and child in Britain. She pointed to Liberal Democrat plans to reduce the deficit including getting rid of ID cards, refusing to make a like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system, and a £400 cap on public sector pay increases.

She hit out at the arrogance of the banks, especially those part owned by the taxpayer, who refused to lend to businesses.  “The Labour government has failed to get this right. Small and medium businesses employ more people than big companies.  They are the future engine of growth,” she said.

She pointed out that out of 3000 unemployed there were 900 young people in Halifax not in education, employment and training. “Under Liberal Democrat plans all of them would be offered a job, education, training, or a paid internship.”

Elisabeth Wilson also criticized the local Conservative run Calderdale Council for doing very little to help local employment, particularly among the minority ethnic community.

“The Labour government has presided over a public transport system where popular buses, like the 36 in Skircoat, can be withdrawn overnight. Cuts are being planned in local health services, but we have no direct say in what they are.”  Elisabeth Wilson described this as a “democratic deficit”.  Only Liberal Democrats are committed to putting all this right, she added, with their commitment to fair and open government.

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 1^st 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:

Bus Survey Results

Pauline Nash, Stephen Gow and Elisabeth Wilson at the Godfrey Road busstop.

The Skircoat ward Lib Dem team (Cllr Stephen Gow, Skircoat ward candidate Pauline Nash, and parliamentary candidate Elisabeth Wilson) have been out and about in Skircoat Green with a survey about changes in bus services.

On January the 25^th the number of peak time buses through Skircoat Green reduced from 6 to 1.

• The 531 service now runs hourly
• The 36 became the 31 service and only runs off peak

In order to make representations to Metro to get a better deal for local residents, the Skircoat team have been calling door to door with a survey on bus usage.  So far they have had a very good response and hope to collate replies soon.

If you would like to complete the survey, please download and send as soon as possible to: councillor.sgow@calderdale.gov.uk OR

Pauline Nash, The Old Sheldon Dairy, Heath Road Halifax HX1

There are 4 pages:

Page 1

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Many thanks