Frome petition to save bus route
Another week and there is another petition to save a bus service that is a vital lifeline for the community. Once again it is First Group who are in the firing line. First Group own not only Buses for Somerset, but also the GWR and SWR train companies. So all in all they have public transport in Somerset pretty much stitched up.
The latest round of service cuts would see significant changes to the D2 bus route. The bus runs from Frome to Bath but also provides a public transport lifeline for villages such as Beckington, Hinton Charterhouse and Norton St Philip. Cllr Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Somerton & Frome) is organising a petition. She says “The current proposal will lead to less frequent buses, the removal of evening services and no service on Sundays or public holidays.”
It is also reasonable to push First Group to do more first. In June this year, they announced results that showed an operating profit of £806m. They can certainly afford to run the bus service should they choose to do so.
Cllr Dyke hopes that by getting enough people to sign the petition, she can exert pressure on First Group to reinstate the service. It is only days since we reported on Wells MP James Heappey doing the same thing with bus service 126 to Weston.
It seems sad that the provision of public transport is becoming a bit of a bit of a football. First Group, Somerset County Council and national government could all solve this problem if they wanted to. Indeed if Cllr Dyke wants to ensure the survival of bus D2, she could simply go to SCC and ask them to subsidise the route. Cllr Dyke is a LibDem and the LibDems control SCC. It is a problem they could solve.
Meanwhile you can sign the petition to save the D2 bus here: https://www.somertonandfromelibdems.org.uk/d2
“(HMG) go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity”. (WSC)
Indeed, succinct your analysis the ‘blame-game’ Councillor Martin Dimery (GREEN PPC) representing Frome on Somerset County Council ‘at a time when there is a short-fall of some 45 million from next year’s SCC budget’. The ’emergent’ LD administration as you point out the ‘keys’ to the door; the art of politics the art of the possible!
Frankly local governance ‘shenanigans’ amidst the ‘looming’ energy crisis as articulated this morning by Martin Lewis, MSEs Money Tips ”guru’ in the upcoming ‘energy-apocalypse’! Whither ‘leadership’ of Church or State? Parliament in recess; HMG liken to ‘rats in a sack’! Across the ‘historic’ Shire County, some nine MPs in ‘hibernation’ the Diocesan Bishop ‘appointed’ but not in office?
Is Gordon Brown the ‘contemporary’ John the Baptist?