SUNDERLAND SUBSIDY B Y 32 votes to 16. Sunderland Town Council
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last week approved the transport committee's recommendation that the town's bus services should be subsidized from the general rates. A total estimated deficit of £63,000 up to March 31, 1965, will be met by a 2f d. rate. Moving an opposition amendment calling for bus fares to be raised and a subsidy from the rates to be rejected. Conn. N. Waters said that the transport department, as a monopoly, must increase its fares to balance its budget. Doubledecker buses running after 7.30 at night were carrying two or three people, and to run them at 10-minute intervals was not a financial proposition. They must be curtailed, even to 30-mM. intervals. During the debate, Coun. C. H. Slater, chairman of the planning committee asked why, if it was wrong to subsidize public transport, was it right to subsidize car owners who parked 'in the town free. A suggestion made by Conn. Mrs. M. E. Burlinson was that one-man buses should be run in the evenings on present double-decker services. Defending the transport committee's proposals, Conn. 1. W. Jamieson said that the wastage of passengers over the past 10 years was something like 10 per cent, compared with the national average of 20per cent. If fares were increased to cover the deficit, the weekly increase in fares to the average passenger would be Is. 6d. compared with a 3d. increase per week for the average househotder if the deficit were met by the rates.