Yorkshire grants cut warning
Page 30
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE COUNTIES of South and West Yorkshire had developed distinctive transport strategies which were only part way through development, and it would be ruinous to interrupt them, warned Mr Richard Wainwright (Liberal, Colne Valley) in the Commons last week.
He was worried about Government instructions to the two counties to cut public transport subsidies or risk losing their transport supplementary grant.
In these areas, the overwhelming number of bus journeys was for the puspose of productive work, he pointed out.
Mr William Rodgers, the Transport Minister, agreed that the two counties had developed distinctive and remarkably different systems. He was most reluctant to use the authority he had through the transport supplementary grant to interfere with reasonable local option.
But he had to make clear to them, as he had to other metropolitan counties, that it was impossible to pour a quart into a pint pot.
Miss Joan Maynard (Labour, Sheffield Brightside) said that the South Yorkshire policy was paying dividends in that more people were travelling on public transport, which was what was needed.
It was very desirable to see more people travelling on the buses, agreed Mr Rodgers, and it was true that the bus often met the needs of those who were least privileged and most deprived.
However, if revenue from the buses did not meet costs there had to be a charge on the rates.
That might be a legitimate decision, but it was not consistent with public expenditure objectives.