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Ridley slams critics

15th December 1984
Page 16
Page 16, 15th December 1984 — Ridley slams critics
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GOVERNMENT ministers are hitting back at anti-deregulation campaigns, with Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley speaking at a series of bus policy meetings throughout the country.

Speaking after a meeting with Greater Manchester Council and Greater Manchester Transport, Mr Ridley said: "Operators are now afraid that their cosy existence will be disturbed and are campaigning against my proposals which will increase customer choice and bring benefits from competition."

He accused them of deliberately misrepresenting him. A Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Campaign Association leaflet has misrepresented him by quoting Mr Ridley as saying: "If people are unable to get a bus they'll take the car or walk and not bother to make the trip."

He said that his policy challenges bus operators to meet the changing needs of their customers. It is a "sad condemnation of their lack of_initiative" that their reaction is to waste ratepayers' money defending declining services. He says people do need buses but he wants the passenger to call the tune — not the operator.

Meanwhile, Junior Transport Minister David Mitchell has been attacking Labourcontrolled Lancashire County Council for its £210,000 campaign against the Government proposals.

He dismissed its leaflet entitled "Now the Bad News" as a "Lancashire hotch-potch of half-truths, innuendos and smears."

He particularly criticised it for scaremongering and frightening the public that safety standards would be cut as a result of deregulation.

He also said that the council was wrong in suggesting that there will be cuts in services and had missed the fundamental point of the proposed policy. He said that by putting an end to "cosy monopolies" and by allowing buses to compete for custom there will be "massive savings in costs".


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