'Give us the money'
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London Country, facing Om deficit, calls for rates support
BY THE end of 1975 London Country Bus Services will be nearly £5m in deficit. To try to get the local authorities in their area to come up with some more cash support to services, they have issued a booklet entitled The Vita/ Link in Danger. This also explains the staff and mechanical problems facing the company.
Managing director Mr Colin Buckley told CM that copies of the booklet had been sent to MPs and to the chief executives of the county, district and borough councils in the LCBS operating area.
"Without the aid of the Transport Supplementary Grant, there is no doubt that many services at present running way below an economic level, will have to be pruned, some cut off completely," says the booklet. Although London Country claimed a total of aim from county councils in 1975/ 76 to support its loss-incurring services, it only expected to receive about £643,000 for this period.
This was largely because only seven per cent of the TSG money available for 1975/76 went to the shire counties, 93 per cent going to metropolitan counties. Although the overall amount of money available for TSG in 1976/77 was to be reduced, the Minister for Transport had stated that he intended that the shire counties should this time get a larger proportion of the total.
The 'Minister had also allowed the NBC to continue to draw on the National Loans Fund until local authorities ,made up their mind what services they wished to support.
The :background to the unreliable services is also explained in the booklet. Although the staff position had now improved there were a number of problems on the mechanical side which leave the number of buses available for services about 13 per cent below the number needed. The ending of an arrangement With London Transport for the overhaul of units and the lack of their own workshop had placed LCBS in a difficult position as they had to place maintenance work with outside contractors.
The future of the Green-Line express network seemed very gloomy. At present all these routes were incurring a loss, and none of the local authorities had offered any support, adds the booklet.