Transport links so vital for Dales are in ‘dire’ state
Public transport services in the Yorkshire Dales have been hit by major cuts, but remain key to the national park’s communities. Ben Barnett and Ruby Kitchen report.
A COMMUNITY-RUN bus service in the Yorkshire Dales is operating on “a wing and a prayer” amid swingeing cutbacks that have left many of the national park’s communities dependent on the goodwill of volunteers for crucial public transport provision.
The transport leader for North Yorkshire County Council, Coun Don Mackenzie, said the £1.5m that the authority subsidies bus services with across the county is protected for the foreseeable future after an earlier £500,000 austerity cut in 2015.
However, the vice-chairman of the Friends of the Dales Bus, Colin Speakman, said the public transport situation in the park was “pretty dire” and that many young people who do not own cars cannot travel to work in even their nearest market towns.
He said: “The Dales has suffered a lot with reduction of services over the last few years – in particular in the northern Dales. There is brilliant work being done by volunteer groups, but there’s still an awful lot that needs doing.
“Transport is an absolutely critical issue. Transport is the glue that holds everything together and at the moment it’s pretty dire. North Yorkshire County Council are doing what they can, but they’ve had terrible cuts.”
He added: “The only way we’ve been able to do it is through sponsorship. For 2019, we just don’t know. The Dales Bus is running on a wing and a prayer. We raised £1,000 at a concert on Saturday to keep the bus running.”
An evidence paper informing the formulation of the new management plan in the Yorkshire Dales National Park states that communities are resilient and have a high participation in voluntary and self-help activities.
Community-run buses are part of that picture and other services operating within the park include the Upper Wharfedale Venturer which runs between Grassington and Skipton on Saturdays and school holidays and Hawes-based The Little White Bus which operates shuttle buses and bespoke services across Upper Wensleydale, Swaledale and Richmondshire.
But there are still gaps and last month a Rural England report cited research by Healthwatch North Yorkshire which found that for some patients in Craven, the only option to attend hospital or GP appointments was by taxi or even have an overnight stay.
More than two thirds of electoral wards in the region have no public transport to a GP surgery outside of office hours.
Coun Mackenzie admitted the geography of England’s largest county presents a huge challenge for subsidised bus travel.
“The county council recognises we have a huge rural area which in many cases is very sparsely populated, that brings challenges, not least for transport,” he said.
“We have tightening budgets and we have had to reduce bus subsidies over the years.
“If a bus is only picking up three or four passengers and travels 10,000 miles, it doesn’t make much sense to the operator to continue that service. It is also about value for money.
“At the moment every year we spend £1.5m on bus subsidies. It was £2m, three years ago, and we had to reduced it by £500,000 in 2015. What I can say is that the £1.5m is locked in for the foreseeable future and there is no intention for reducing that any further.”
THE REACTION to The Yorkshire Post’s special series on the future of the Dales reveals not only the public’s wider appreciation of this National Park, but frustration that it has taken a proposed council tax hike on second homes to highlight myriad social and economic challenges facing the area.
Even though the current consternation has been driven, in part, by an ageing population and shortage of dynamic new jobs in rural areas that might – just – meet the ambitions of younger people, especially those who don’t intend to pursue a career in farming, it has been at least 20 years in the making.
The reason? Successive governments shortchanging the countryside because they don’t understand the rural economy, the cost of providing essential services in remote areas and why the day-to-day policy issues are very different to those encountered in urban areas.
Yet, while the response of Theresa May’s government will be to highlight the feasibility study into the reopening of the Skipton to Colne railway, this announcement, though welcome, needs to be seen in a wider context. If approved – and there are no certainties – it will benefit the western side of the Dales. It will not necessarily help the rest of the area where bus services are so sparse in places that they’re dependent on the goodwill of volunteers.
As such, local, regional and national politicians need to remember that the single issue of rural transport, for example, is crucal to all sections of society, whether it be the young accessing jobs or the elderly being less prone to loneliness, and change the policy direction of travel before it is too late.