South Cambridgeshire District Council Planning Committee 6 September  – S/1901/16/OL

County Councillor comments

 

I hope that my July Planning Committee comments will be included for review for the September 6^th meeting.

 

Since July the trend of increasingly constricted local transport options has continued, as follows:

 

1. Meldreth’s last commercial bus service terminated on 23 July, as predicted.

 

2. Efforts to support those left without any transport at all have been constrained by new government guidance on community transport licensing that prohibits scheduled community transport. So, the loss of bus services cannot be compensated for by community transport.

 

3. The one other commercial bus operator which had expressed an interest in developing new local transport links has pulled out of the wider area, citing lack of commercial viability for village bus links.

 

As for the future of the once-per-day council-subsidized bus connecting Meldreth to Royston, that does not even pass by the proposed development site, there remains no assurance that subsidies will continue beyond this financial year.  Loss of subsidy would spell the end of that service.
If the £27K Real Time Bus Information is installed as proposed, it would stand as some kind of reminder of a fundamental component of sustainability that does not exist, and this would at least hold decision makers to account.

Susan van de Ven

 

County Councillor, Meldreth, Melbourn, Whaddon and Bassingbourn

Chair, County Council Total Transport Steering Group (which advises the council on community transport and bus subsidies)

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