Decision to axe free bus service defended by cllr
ATOP Stockport councillor has defended the town hall’s decision to scrap a free Metroshuttle bus to save £250,000.
Chief of regeneration, Coun Kate Butler, said the service was axed because the council is under pressure to slash millions from its budget.
Her comment was in response to a question put forward by campaigner Deborah Hind, who quizzed the town hall boss about the decision.
The bus was introduced to help ease congestion – and help shoppers get about.
During Tuesday’s cabinet meeting Ms Hind, a member of Stockport Together Against Austerity, said: “I was surprised by the number of people who signed our petition to save the service.
“And equally surprised about the number of people who didn’t know it was under threat – and that the council had conducted a public consultation.
“Has anyone from the authority actually spoken to the elderly and disabled people who use the service to find out how scrapping it will impact them?”
Coun Butler said the authority had used all avenues possible to advertise the consultation.
“We also wrote to Disability Stockport to obtain that organisations views – and any other media outlet that we have influence over,” she said.
“The responses to the consultation didn’t come as a surprise, as people who use the service said they valued it.
“However, a number of responses were interesting – with some saying they used the bus to get to work.
“The free bus is for shoppers and to assist people to get about, it was not designed to be used by people to travel to work.
“Meanwhile, the decision was to either cut the mental health support budget or the bus service – and, unfortunately, the axe fell on providing free transport.”
Coun Butler said that the cuts were due to central government reducing funding to local council’s – and, as a result, services were ‘suffering’ the consequences.
“It’s about deciding what services we can protect – and how long we can protect them for,” she said. “Unfortunately, a free shuttle bus is not at the top of that list.”
However, Ms Hind said it was wrong to say people who worked shouldn’t use the bus.
“You don’t know how much they earn – and you don’t know if they are receiving benefits,” she argued.
Speaking after the meeting, chief executive of Disabled Stockport Kieran McMahon, said the service was ‘valued’ by many disabled people.
“It is used a lot – and not just by our members and visitors, but others who shop in the market hall and town centre,” he said.
“We have also used it to help people get familiar with using buses – and often accompanied them until they were confident to travel alone.
“However, I have every sympathy with the council as it is forced to continually cut its spending.
“If austerity is really over, surely we should be investing in our towns – and not cutting already decimated services?” ●●SEE letters on p10.