Post bus services not the answer
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• One man who thinks that post bus services are not the answer to the rural problem is Mr Leonard Conaway who is heading a special committee looking into the problem of passenger transport in Cumberland.
Mr Conaway believes that in the first place such services are usually going in the wrong direction at the wrong time for the needs of the rural population—for example away from town in the mornings. For post collections he points out it is also necessary to keep to strict timings which do not fit in with the times that most people want to use rural services. There was also the question of a security problem to be considered.
After reading recent reports on post bus services Mr Conaway said he felt there was little future for them. He is looking into a suggestion to be made to his committee on rural transport with a view to the appointment of a full-time transport officer to look after the county generally, and make suggestions.
Mr Conaway, while making his comment plain on post buses, also added that the idea put forward by the Government that better use should be made of private cars equally did not appeal to him. Letting people rely on good neighbourliness was tantamount in his opinion to charity. He added that at least he was pleased by an assurance he got last week when Mr Peter Walker, Secretary of State for the Environment, visited West Cumberland, to the effect that the Government would look sympathetically at a change in the current licensing system to snake way for smaller operators.