‘Public ownership’ call for bus service

TRANSPORT: Taking bus services in South Yorkshire back under public control should be seriously considered in the long term, a comprehensive review has suggested.

The South Yorkshire Bus Review, chaired by Sheffield MP Clive Betts, found many failings throughout the county’s public transport network.

A LAWYER from Hull representing 25 former subpostmasters is preparing for their cases to go to the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn their convictions.

The Post Office has identified around 900 cases where subpostmasters could have been wrongly prosecuted for crimes, including theft and false accounting, as a result of errors in the Horizon computer system it has used for the past two decades.

As yet only 47 cases have been sent to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to consider potential miscarriages of justice.

Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors, has been given eight weeks to set out the grounds for each appeal. He is also challenging a number of cases which have not been referred to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC.

Mr Hudgell welcomed increasing pressure from campaigners and MPs for a public inquiry and for senior Post Office figures to face further investigation.

He said: “We have to remember that this is an injustice which cost many hard-working, community-serving individuals so much – livelihoods, reputations, liberty and lives.

“Until recently, the people who were prosecuted were persuaded that they had been in the wrong and that they had no grounds to challenge that from.

“The situation has now changed and if you have suffered injustice and not sought to challenge it, the time to do so is now.”

Last year the Post Office paid a £57.75m settlement after more than 550 claimants brought group legal action over the Horizon system. In May it launched a claims scheme for current and former postmasters who believe they have experienced shortfalls related to previous versions of Horizon.