Stone Town Council’s Conservative Councillors issue statement on replacement bus service

[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” class=”” width=””]Stone Town Council have issued the following statement in relation to this article.

“Stone Town Council would like to correct the information contained in a recent Little Bit of Stone news article headed “Stone Town Council’s Conservative Councillors issue statement on replacement bus service”.

Contrary to the statement in the article referred to above, whilst discussions are continuing with respect to the provision of once a week services between the town centre and each of the Aston Lodge, Stonefield, Walton and Cherryfields areas, that provision has not yet been secured.

Whilst it is the Council’s wish to support, for at least a trial period, a partial replacement of the D&G services which ceased on 22nd July 2018 (not in April, as stated in the above article), it can only do so once a contract with a suitable operator has been signed.”[/box]

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The Conservative Members of Stone Town Council have welcomed the plans by the Council to introduce a replacement bus service following D&G pulling the A, B and C routes in July.

Philip Jones submitted the following statement to A Little Bit of Stone:

Conservative Members of Stone Town Council welcome the initiative made by Cllr Joyce Farnham to find and secure an imaginative, not-for-profit funded and affordable partial re-provision of the town centre bus services, which we lost in April when Staffordshire county Council withdrew their subsidy. We thank Cllr Farnham for her work in finding this alternative but we insist that the Council makes commensurate savings elsewhere as we will not support an increase in Council Tax.

We record our dismay and concern at the loss of the County Council subsidy whilst other similar towns, for example Cheadle, have kept theirs and we again ask Cllr Jill Hood, representing Stone on the County Council to explain how this was allowed to happen, to say how many meetings she had with the County council’s leadership and to publish the submission which she made during the period of consultation.

Cllr Tom Jackson said, “There is burning resentment at the loss of the bus service. Hundreds of homes in, for example Walton, each pay £1210 a year to the County Council and cannot understand why they have been left stranded without a bus service”

In response to the piece we contacted Town, Borough and County Councillor Jill Hood for comment and her response was:

Philip Jones knows only too well, that most local authorities throughout the UK are suffering severe funding cuts by this Conservative run government and have to make very difficult decisions as to what are their funding priorities.

It became obvious that when Staffs County Council had to find £300million to fund care that it would have to make cuts to the subsidy paid to the D&G bus company service in Stone and as early as August 2017 I consulted with officers at the County Council desperate to find a solution to the massive problem it would bring in losing our buses as I realized only too well the implications, social isolation, young people unable to travel to school and jobs or even a social event, people unable to keep appointments in town and the reduction in local spending.

I contacted the network development officer and then the connectivity operations manager & each time the message was the same that the County Council; had to support looked after children and the frail and elderly some to stay in their own homes some in care.

Following the 8 week BUS consultation, cuts were announced to the Stone bus service, I immediately contacted Chris Almond the Bus Network manager for D&G and spoke to him at length to see if we could reach an agreement with Stone Town Council, subsequently a meeting was arranged and Chris explained to us that each of his buses “costs in excess of £100,000 per year to operate and the Stone services are making half of that amount”.

Many residents had told me they would be prepared to pay but Chris explained it wouldn’t even touch the surface of the amount needed to keep a service going in Stone and the town council fully understands that a company cannot be expected to run at a loss.

I spoke to Mike Ward organiser of the Community Green Bus, he apologetically explained we couldn’t use the Green Bus for commercial purposes.

Mrs Farnham is part of a working group, she has by no means single handedly secured a replacement bus service as Philip Jones has inferred, it has taken a lot of work by the group in finding a solution, as for an imaginative solution to our bus service I will let the public decide on that one when it goes to press, all I know is we have done our best with the finances available.

I’m afraid the silly season is upon us and local elections loom large, hence the statement put out by Philip Jones re an increase in council tax which has never been mentioned or discussed, so I have been expecting this sort of statement put out by him. I can honestly state to Philip Jones that I have exhausted every avenue available; to try to find a solution and the stories I am hearing from many Stone residents are heartbreaking.

No representation on behalf of Stone residents to the County council at any point was made by local Conservatives to their Tory colleagues at Staffordshire County Council ,who took the decision to make the cuts to the bus service.

It’s a bit late to be complaining now Tom Jackson and Philip Jones you should have lobbied your Tory counterparts when you had the chance, quite simply you’ve missed the bus!

Details of the proposed Stone Town Council supported bus can be found in this article – Stone Town Council looks to fund a partial replacement for axed bus services