Roberts backs Wales
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• Welsh Office Minister 4Vyn Roberts has hit back at Labour claims that there has been a massive slump in bus mileages in Wales since deregulation (CM, November 22). In a letter to MPs, published last week, Roberts reported that the change over to a deregulated market has proved very successful.
Although no detailed check on the Welsh operating scene has yet been completed — the Transport and Road Research Laboratory is currently reviewing the Welsh situation — Roberts has sharply rejected allegations by shadow Welsh Secretary Barry Jones that services have been heavily cut.
"All the reports I have received suggest that in most areas bus services have remained at about their previous levels," he says. "There does not seem to have been any serious loss of services and in some areas there have been significant improvements, largely as a result of competition."
According to local government officials, any losses have been confined almost entirely to a small number of evening and weekend routes which were already declining.
In his letter, Roberts states, "This very promising beginning appears to be due primarily to the fact that a much higher proportion of the services than many people expected, are being operated commercially — ie without subsidy."
"And in the case of those remaining services that can only be operated with local authority support, the new system of tendering for subsidy appears to be enabling authorities to obtain much bet ter value for money," claims Roberts.
A number of changes have already taken place within Wales since deregulation including in Gwynedd, where contracts for country services, previously operated by Crosville, have gone to independents. In Caerphilly contracts to run services, previously operated by the district council, have been won by National Welsh.