The cold war in Britain’s localities is warming up. Buried in the Telegraph and
the Financial Times is the news that councils are cutting local bus services, and central government is being apportioned blame. An organisation called Better Transport has launched a campaign
titled Save Our Buses. It claims that straitened councils have been forced to shed £34 million from the subsidised
funding of local buses; 70 percent of routes have been affected so far.
This is a prime example of local government conniving to avoid responsibility for spending contractions. With adroit calculation, councils bastardise vital services to inconvenience those they represent. Local bus routes are a necessity, particularly for pensioners, school children and those who live in rural areas. Rising fuel costs are exerting yet more pressure on strained public transport networks. Retrenchment will therefore hamper economic recovery; inequality and poverty deepen in consequence, or so the argument goes.
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