Free Bus Travel In Southampton This Weekend!

Black Watch is one of nine cruise liners docking in Southampton this weekend

Southampton's Conservative Council is teaming up with local bus companies to lay on free bus travel this coming Saturday and Sunday.

The city will play host to nine cruise liners and nearly 50,000 passengers this weekend. This will provide a huge boost for the local economy, potentially bringing millions of pounds into the area.

It is estimated that an extra 12,000 vehicles will be on the road this weekend and the City Council is keen to do all it can to cut congestion and keep the city moving. By laying on free buses it is also hoped that more people will be encouraged to use public transport in the future.

Bus travel is free in Southampton until 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. The journeys will be free as long as they start and finish within the city’s boundaries.

A Week In Politics

It has been a busy and eventful week in Southampton Politics. My casework post bag gone up considerably since the start of the year and there is lots going on in the city.


Council Tax

On Wednesday the BBC ran a story on how across the country council tax is set to rocket again this year as local councils continue to face cut backs in funding from the government. I did an interview on the Ten O'clock News and was able to highlight how Southampton, being in the South of England, is suffering in particular from government underfunding.

One area where Southampton is under severe financial pressure is over the issue of the national concessionary bus fares scheme due to come in on 1st April. This was announced by Gordon Brown as a pre election sweetener just before the 2005 General Election. The government promised the fund the free travel scheme but has since gone back on its pledge and is trying to shift the costs to the local council tax payer. In Southampton the shortfall in funding could be up to £1m or more (about 1.5% on council tax!)


Hill Lane Toucan Crossing

I went along to the public meeting regarding the possible Toucan crossing at Raymond Road / Hill Lane. From the conversations that I had people seemed to be broadly in favour. One issue that lots of people raised was the need to improve cycle paths around the city. If the Hill Lane crossing is popular and goes ahead then there is the opportunity to link up a cycle path through the common to the Avenue, and then up to Wilton Road and King Edwards School.


St Mark's School

I went along to the St Mark's school governors meeting on Tuesday evening to talk with them about the the council's plans to purchase the Civil Service Sports Ground in Stafford Road and also about the primary school review which is about to start in the city.


Promoting the City's Art

On Thursday I went to a reception at the civic centre art gallery, organised by Business Southampton. The new Conservative administration is looking to expand the council's art lease scheme, where works of art are loaned out to offices, private collectors and other galleries. The art gallery has far more paintings than it can hope to display and so this is an opportunity to display the art and also generate some income which can be used to meet the costs of the gallery and promote art and local artists in the city.

Leading the way on Public Transport

Conservatives have pledged extra funds to protect concessionary bus users in Southampton.

Under the Government’s national scheme concessionary bus users would find themselves barred from using their concessions before 9.30 in the morning. The Conservative Administration felt that this would unfairly penalise bus users who needed to get to hospital or other appointments before 9.30.

We are determined that local bus users don’t lose out because the Government are short changing the city.

Funds will be set aside to pay for an additional concessionary bus travel within Southampton's boundaries. This will include:

- Travel for Southampton pensioners between 9am and midnight within Southampton’s boundaries.
- Travel for all disabled people within the city boundaries including those who miss out under the government’s criteria for the national scheme. This includes all people on Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Companion passes to allow family members and carers to travel for free when accompanying disabled bus users.

The decision follows extensive consultation over recent months on the Conservative’s draft budget proposals for next year.

We have shown over many years that we are leading the way on public transport. We are the only Party who are willing and able to deliver a fair deal for Concessionary bus users. The Conservatives called for free travel for pensioners as far back as 2002.

What Use Is Free Bus Travel if There Aren't Any Buses!

That's the question pensioners are asking following the government's bungled introduction of free bus travel.

The government's legislation requires that councils provide free bus travel within the authority.

A pot of money has been provided to councils to pay for this. Inevitably the sum of money is not enough.

The effect of this that councils are not paying the bus operators the full cost of carrying pensioners. Southampton pays them 50p for every pound of travel.

This means that bus operators are losing money on some routes. This may happen even if there is a net increase in the numbers of passengers using the route.

Bus companies are therefore challenging the legislation and withdrawing uneconomic routes.

The X27 from Southampton to Portsmouth (pictured above) is one such route. It ends of 1st June 2007.

The peverse impact of government legislation is that they have introduced free travel on buses for pensioners and the impact of this is the routes they want to use are being cancelled.

What use is free travel if there isn't a bus!? Many pensioners I have spoken to would rather pay and still have a bus. Next year revised legislation will means that free travel is introduced countrywide and a larger pot of money will be made avaialable. This may mean a higher fee for the operator and more routes becoming economical and therefore staying open or reopenning.

Southampton city council have until now supported the X27 route in >conjunction with Portsmouth City council however this will end in June as Portsmouth have advised that they can't meet the extra costs acked >for by the operator, Solent Blueline. Southampton are looking at alternative provision perhaps via Southampton Airport.

This is another example of how Labour's top down centrist approach fails. Bad legislation has had the opposite impact of what was intended.

Surely it would have been much better to provide more funds to local government and let them decide how the money is best spent locally. The money might still have gone into subsidies for public transport but might have been much more effectively targeted.

Politicians Should Be Judged By Their Actions and Not Their Words

Councillor Brian Parnell: Unlike Labour Conservatives Have Budgeted Free Bus Travel Across Hampshire for Southampton Pensioners

The local elections have started in earnest!

I have been reading some of the literature that Labour candidates in the city are distributing.

Some of the claims beggar belief!

In particular Labour are deeply critical of the Lib Dem run council. They even claim that the Conservatives are in alliance with Lib Dems locally.

A few facts for people to consider:

1. Labour were an unmitigated disaster when they ran the city.
2. Whilst they are making all sorts of promises at election time they were unable to deliver the things they promise when the ran the city. Also they didn't budget for the majority of things that they are now promising when they put forward the budget proposals for the city (e.g. extra road repairs, free bus travel for pensioners across Hampshire, kerbside collection of glass)
3. The reason the Lib Dems are currently in power in Southampton is that Labour voted to put them in office in May 2006!

Conservatives Secure Key Changes To City Budget

Yesterday afternoon the City Council set its budget for the coming year.

I am really pleased that Conservative Councillors were able to successfully lobby for changes to improve the budget.

Some of the key concessions achieved by the Conservatives were:

1. Keeping the weekly bin collection.
2. Preventing the introduction of night time car parking charges.
3. Keeping Cobbett Road Library open.
4. Preventing planned cuts to vital children's social services.

We were also able to presuade the Council to reduce the council tax increase from 3.5% to 3.3%.

These things were funded by bureaucracy savings.

During the budget debate Labour Councillors were exposed over their U-Turn on providing free buses across Hampshire for pensioners and over their plans to close Oaklands swimming pool.

Labour's Priorities For Southampton Are All Wrong!

Labour's proposals for next year's City Council budget show that they have all the wrong priorities for Southampton.

Labour want to impose a Council Tax increase of 4.5% on local residents. This is almost the maximum that they could get away with as the Government caps increases of more that 5%. By contrast the Conservatives want to keep council tax increases below inflation and propose a 2.7% increase. In addition we have proposed a 10% reduction in Council Tax for pensioners. Households where people are 65 or over would pay on average £160 less a year in Council Tax under the Conservatives than they would under a Labour run city council.

Labour claim that they are protecting services yet they want to cut £333,000 out of the children's social services budget and close family centres which help look after abused and vulnerable children. Last year they conspired with the Liberal Democrats to cut the budget for elderly people receiving home care and increased the fees charged by the Council. Surely looking after the most vulnerable in society should be the highest priority for the Council yet Labour do not seem to see this as being remotely important. Conservatives will do all they can to resist cuts to these vital services.

Labour have promised free bus travel across Hampshire for Southampton pensioners but unlike the Conservatives they haven't shown how they would pay for it.

Labour are promising free swmiming for under 11s but to pay for it they want to close Oaklands swimming pool. So it is free swimming unless you live in Lordswood or Lordshill!

Labour want to give £100,000 to subsidise the activities of trades unions in the City. I can't think of anywhere else in the country where this sort of thing happens!

It is also interesting to note that the only political party calling for cuts to be made to Councillor allowances is the Conservative Party.

Labour Hypocrisy Over Buses in Southampton

The Labour party in Southampton have repeatedly promised that they would provide free bus travel across Hampshire for Southampton pensioners. Click HERE to read what they say.

At the moment bus travel is free for pensioners within the boundaries of the city and to some defined places outside the boundary, such as Totton.

Labour made a manifesto pledge in the 2006 elections to extend the scheme across all of Hampshire and were deeply critical of the Council for not doing this. Despite this they did not include proposals to fund the increased service in their 2006 budget proposals for the City Council. I have now just discovered that they haven't included the funding in their 2007 proposals either!

How on earth are people supposed to trust what they say!!!

Conservatives agree that it's unfair that pensioners in the rest of Hampshire can travel Hampshire wide for free whilst Southampton residents can't. That's why we support the proposal to extend free bus travel to Hampshire. That's also why we have allocated money in our budget proposals to pay for it.