Rural Action : When?
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AVING acknowledged the plight of rural bus services, by setting up the Jack Committee, and then by taking no action on its report— published on March 15 last—the Minister of Transport laid himself open to a charge of double-dealing (although no one would suggest that he was).
In point of fact, Mr. Marples was handed a very hot potato and seems to have been quite happy to toss it into the relative obscurity of his Ministry until it had cooled to a temperature where he could comfortably handle it. Although the majority report of the committee reached a conclusion (subsidization of individual services) that was unsatisfactory to operators, the entire committee agreed upon the gravity of the situation. So everybody, including Mr. Marples, was in agreement on the principle—that something must be done to keep these unremunerative bus services going.
This has made the delay doubly galling to busmen who, all the while Mr. Marples and his Ministry advisers have been considering what to do with the report's recommendations, have been steadily more and more hard-pressed to keep these services going.