Imagine the public services the cost of this railway line could provide! Originally costed at £32.7 billion, latest estimates put it at £56 billion and rising fast.
“The government will soon start to spend billions of pounds on the HS2 high-speed train line, creating faster connections around England. However, some are questioning if this is the right part of the rail network to receive so much investment.”
Channel 4 synopsis of programme
“More shops closed down in 2018 than in any year on record, as the crisis on the high street deepened and retailers went into full retreat.
Analysis for The Sunday Telegraph by the Local Data Company shows that 18,355 stores brought their shutters down for the final time.
There were around 13,676 shop openings last year, producing a net loss of 4,679 retail outlets, up more than 1,600 on 2017 as retailers such Marks & Spencer scrapped expansion plans.
Including banks and restaurants the total number of consumer outlets that closed was 50,828, also a record. …”
“Ministers have conceded that teachers’ pay has fallen by thousands of pounds a year since the public spending austerity drive began, amid warnings of a “looming crisis” in attracting and retaining new staff.
Classroom pay has fallen by more than £4,000 a year since 2010 in real terms, according to a government assessment. Damian Hinds, the education secretary, warned that only a 2% increase can be expected for the next academic year.
The admission comes in the Department for Education’s official submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations on pay deals. It states that pay is also lower than it was 15 years ago in real terms. “From 2002-03 to 2017-18, classroom teacher median salaries have seen a drop of 10% and overall teacher median salaries of 11% in real terms,” it says. It argues that the fall was smaller than that suffered by private sector graduates.
Unions have been calling for a 5% rise for the next academic year, arguing that low pay makes it hard to retain staff. Last year, about 60% of teachers were expected to receive below-inflation awards. …”
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/09/teacher-pay-down-real-terms-since-2003
Firefighters are already trained as first medical responders in many towns – now they will be fire/medical/police officers. Hope they get the salary increases that go with the extra responsibilities …..
And, no, it isn’t an “innovative project” as Ms Hernandez suggests – Owl believes it’s a cover-up for too few firefighters, paramedics and police officers.
“This innovative police and fire collaboration project is being funded by Devon and Cornwall’s police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez who hopes it will improve access to the emergency services for communities in Devon.
The seven community responders have been recruited into locations where there is a need based on risk, vulnerability and harm – Cullompton, Crediton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Okehampton, Newton Abbot and Totnes.
Ms Hernandez has committed funding for an initial two years covering recruitment and ongoing training costs with the possibility of extending further. It forms part of her commitment to improving collaboration between the emergency services.
“I’m incredibly pleased to be able to support this collaboration. We don’t know what future funding will look like for any of our emergency services and working together on unique projects like this will improve the service both organisations can deliver to people in Devon.” said Ms Hernandez.
“I look forward to seeing the benefits that our communities will reap from this innovative work.” …
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/firefighters-trained-police-officers-seven-2521123
“The chief constable of Devon and Cornwall says the thin blue line of British policing is broken and lives in the two counties are more at risk than ever because of financial cuts.
Shaun Sawyer is supporting a proposal to increase the police council tax precept to fund 85 more police officers, but also said he would still be left with nearly 600 fewer than he had nine years ago. The force currently has just under 3,000 officers.
Mr Sawyer said the most vulnerable were at risk from the government’s decision to slash police budgets in 2010 and officers saw the “effects of those cuts every day”…
Well, cover me in tar and call me the M5! Owl has been saying this for YEARS. The only question that needs to be asked is: Is this deliberate or unintentional? Either way, it’s a damning indictment of its mendacity and incestuous relationship with developers or a damning indictment of its totally inept ability to govern. Or, of course (and more likely) BOTH!
“The government’s housing planning system is unable to demonstrate it is meeting housing demand effectively, public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.
The government wants 300,000 new homes a year from the mid-2020s onwards.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has a standard method, developed in 2017, for local authorities to assess the number of new homes needed.
The NAO says this has weaknesses.
It says these weaknesses will result in a cut in the number of planned new homes in five of nine regions, while in London, the method will mean that new builds need to double in order to meet what the department thinks is needed.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said the current formula did not take into account the needs of local communities.
‘Free-for-all’
Local authorities – by law – need to have an up-to-date plan for building new homes.
If they are unable to prove that they have a five-year supply of land for housing, developers have greater freedoms to build where they want.
The NAO points out that this risks ill-suited developments, while the LGA says it risks a “free-for-all”.
The NAO says that between 2005-06 and 2017-18, 177,000 new homes per year were built on average, with the number never rising above 224,000.
To meet its ambition for 300,000 homes a year, the department will need to oversee a 69% increase in the average number of new homes built.
The NAO recommends the housing department should regularly monitor the gap between its ambition for 300,000 new homes and what is being planned.
It also says it needs to work with local authorities and other government departments to ensure that infrastructure is delivered more effectively.
Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said: “For many years, the supply of new homes has failed to meet demand.
“From the flawed method for assessing the number of homes required, to the failure to ensure developers contribute fairly for infrastructure, it is clear the planning system is not working well.
“The government needs to take this much more seriously and ensure its new planning policies bring about the change that is needed.”
Councillor Martin Tett, the Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman, said: “We remain clear that the government’s housing needs formula does not take into account the complexity and unique needs of local housing markets, which vary significantly from place to place.”
“Two million more people are on incomes considered too low to have an “acceptable” standard of living compared with 10 years ago, new research has found.
A study by Loughborough University suggested three quarters of lone parent families had earnings too low to meet their minimum needs – up by 65% since the financial crisis in 2008.
And the number of single women in their early 60s – a group affected by an increase to the state pension age – living below the minimum standard of living was found to have doubled in the last decade.
The University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) conducted the research as part of its Minimum Income Standards programme, which calculates the minimum budget individuals require to cover their material needs and to participate in society.
Its findings suggested that, compared to 2008, two in five women aged 60-64 who live alone have incomes too low to meet their minimum needs, up from one in five. …”
Swire’s poor taste quips were missing at this year’s Tory Black and White Ball
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/02/11/hugo-swire-is-auctioneer-at-15000-per-head-tory-ball/
but conspicuous consumption ruled, as always.
“An unnamed donor paid £75,000 for a private night at the Proms with Theresa May at the Tories’ lavish Black and White Ball fundraiser.
Super-rich Tory donors splashed tens of thousands of pounds on cosy dinners with ministers, hunting trips and luxury holidays at the bash, as they dined on Michelin star food and drank fine wine.
Guests paid up to £15,000 a table to rub shoulders with Cabinet Ministers and take part in an exclusive auction.
Private dinners and events with nine cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister herself were sold to the highest bidder.
Labour Party Chair Ian Lavery said it was “stomach-churning”
Tory Chairman Brandon Lewis told guests: “Whatever you bid at the auction it is less than you’ll pay in tax under Corbyn.”
Revellers dug deep to fill Mrs May’s election war chest, with a set of Conservative Party campaign posters signed by the Prime Minister also selling for a staggering £175,000 – the cost of a three-bedroom terraced house in Sheffield.
And Philip May, the Prime Minister’s husband, pledged a donation of £4,200 to pay for ground campaigning in the month of May.
The auction was presented by Wynne Evans, star of the Go Compare adverts.
Lots included included Lunch at Ivy, one of London’s most exclusive restaurants, with Tory austerity architect George Osborne with a minimum bid of £6,000.
Restaurant tycoon Richard Caring, who owns the Ivy, attended the party and is understood to have donated the prize.
Also up for grabs were a Japanese dinner with Jeremy Hunt for at least £3,000 and Dinner with Home Secretary Sajid Javid for at least £2,500.
A ‘private cinema experience’ with Work and Pensions Secretary’ Amber Rudd sold for at least £2,000.
The lucky winner taking 19 friends to watch Ms Rudd’s favourite film, Samuel L Jackson spy thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight.
International Development Minister Penny Mordaunt, who was a magician’s assistant before becoming an MP, offered a private magic lesson for up to six people.
And Environment Secretary Michael Gove and wife Sarah Vine, offered a cosy, home-cooked meal, prepared personally at the kitchen table of their London family home.
And a streak of humour was added to the auction by offering a British cheese tasting session with Treasury Secretary Liz Truss.
Ms Truss shot to fame after a 2016 conference speech in which she overdramatically said it was a “disgrace” Britain imports two thirds of our cheese.
One lucky bidder won the chance to have their portrait painted by renowned artist Peregrine Heathcote for upwards of £20,000.
Labour Party Chair Ian Lavery said: “This sort of cash for access undermines our democracy and goes to the very root of why people have lost faith in politicians.
“People will be shocked to learn that there’s a price tag on keeping company with the Prime Minister.
“While millions of people are struggling with squeezed wages and Universal Credit , the Tories auctioning off a seat next to the Prime Minister for £75,000 is stomach-churning.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/inside-tory-black-white-ball-13968469
“Chris Grayling’s plan to run no-deal Brexit ferries from Ramsgate is in danger of collapsing if the local council approves swingeing budget cuts to the port, a senior Whitehall source has admitted.
The transport secretary handed Seaborne Freight, a company with no ships, a £13.8m contract to lay on Channel crossings to relieve pressure on Dover if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on March 29.
But Thanet District Council is planning cuts of £730,000 to the port of Ramsgate, amid severe funding pressures.
If councillors approve the budget on Thursday night it would put the entire Seaborne venture “at risk”, the source told HuffPost UK.
The revelation prompted Labour to accuse Grayling of “incompetence on an epic scale”.
The transport secretary has already faced fierce criticism for giving the contract to Seaborne, a company which last month admitted error after apparently copying and pasting the terms and conditions section of its website from a takeaway delivery outlet.
The mayor of Ostend, at the Belgian end of the planned crossing, has also said it would be impossible to have a new service up and running by the end of March.
But the Department for Transport (DfT) said it continues to have “conversations” with the council, among other organisations, “over any plans to re-establish ferry services at the port of Ramsgate”.
The Ramsgate Action Group, which has been campaigning against the Seaborne plan, said it was now “dead in the water” unless the DfT steps in. …”
“The UK government is “in denial” over the sustainability of local government finances, a group of MPs has warned.
Councils are overspending on social care, reducing key services, relying on reserves and resorting to generating income from alternative sources, the Public Accounts Committee has claimed – adding that the government’s insistence that the sector is in fact sustainable is “extremely troubling”.
A PAC report, published today, noted that local authorities in England have seen their core funding from central government slashed by nearly 50% since 2010/11.
It added that such cuts have coincided with increasing demand for services such as housing – the number of homeless people in the UK has risen by one-third in the past eight years – adding that increased demand for social care means councils have had to cut spending in other areas. Spending on services outside of social care has fallen by 32.6% between 2010/11 and 2016/17, it stated.
The report added that, despite these figures, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government insists the sector remains sustainable.
“The government is in denial about the perilous state of local finances. It insists the sector is sustainable yet is unwilling or unable to back up this claim,” said Meg Hillier, chair of the PAC.
“Flimsy assertions have no place in financial planning. The fact that government has bailed out councils with short-term fixes should be evidence enough that all is far from well.
“Government needs to get real, listen fully to concerns of local government and take a hard look at the real impact funding reductions have on local services. And then it needs to plan properly for the long-term,” she added.
The cross-party group of MPs added that it was “deeply dismayed” that MHCLG views the financial sustainability of local authorities solely in terms of a “small set of statutory services”, such as social care, rather than the full range of services local people need.
“It is extremely troubling that the government views the financial sustainability of councils solely in terms of statutory services, rather than the full range of services local people need and can reasonably expect councils to provide,” Hillier said.
Overall local authority spending on services fell by 19.2% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2016/17, which the PAC says has pushed the MHCLG into using short-term cash injections, such as the £1.4bn allocated in the 2018 Budget.
Permanent secretary at MHCLG, Melanie Dawes, told the PAC in November: “We believe the sector as a whole is sustainable if the amount of resources available to it can deliver the statutory services that it is required to deliver.”
The report recommended that MHCLG should work with local authorities to collect evidence on the impact on service users of providing funding through one-off funding boosts as opposed to long-term funding arrangements.
In the 2019/20 local government finance settlement communities secretary James Brokenshire said that core spending power would increase from £45.1bn in 2018-19 to £46.4bn in 2019-20 – a cash increase of 2.8%.
“This year’s settlement paves the way for a fairer, more self-sufficient and resilient future for local government. That is why local authorities will have more control over the money they raise and a real terms increase in their core spending power,” he said.
The Local Government Association recently warned that discretionary services are under threat due to cuts to central government funding.
Further reaction to the report:
Rob Whiteman, CIPFA chief executvie, said: “It is widely accepted that the current funding model for local authorities is no longer viable, and without bold policy solutions vital public services will continue to be eroded in order to balance the budget.
“We should all share the concern that if current trends are allowed to continue, it will be some of the most vulnerable in society who will be missing out on services and experiencing worsening outcomes as a result.”
Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association’s resources board, said: “We agree with the Committee that the financial sustainability of local government cannot be defined by the ability of councils to just provide statutory duties.
“Pressures continue to grow in children’s services, adult social care, and efforts to tackle homelessness, and this is leaving increasingly less money for councils to fund other discretionary services, such as the maintenance of parks, certain bus services, cultural activities and council tax support for those in financial difficulty.”
Andrew Gwynne, shadow communities and local government secretary, said: “Nine of the ten most deprived councils in the country have seen cuts of almost three times the national average.
“And when you cut vital support services in such areas, social problems grow – and demand for those services only becomes greater.”
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/02/local-government-finances-unsustainable-mps-warn
“The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has set up a network of nine local authority chief executives across England as part of preparations for the UK leaving the EU.
The Ministry said the chief executives would engage with councils in their region “to share information on preparations to support an orderly exit”.
It added that the chief executives would simultaneously be kept informed on national policy on EU exit that could have implications for local services, businesses and residents.
The chief executives participating in the network are:
Phil Norrey, Devon County Council (South West)
Becky Shaw, East Sussex County Council (South East)
John O’Brien, London Councils (London)
Nick Page, Solihull MBC (West Midlands)
Anthony May, Nottingham City Council (East Midlands)
Tony Reeves, Liverpool City Council (North West)
Martin Swales, South Tyneside Council (North East)
Tom Riordan, Leeds City Council (Yorkshire and Humber)
Richard Carr, Central Bedfordshire Council (East of England)”
Source: Local Government Lawyer
Corbyn notes that profits come before people:
“Jeremy Corbyn has taken aim at bus companies for raking in £3.3bn in profits since 2010 while slashing key routes. …”
and Friends of the Earth call for all bus travel to be free:
“Friends of the Earth said there needed to be a “radical reimagining of transport” to bring about a 20% reduction in car journeys, even with a faster switch to electric cars, to meet climate change targets.
The group said free bus travel, costing £3bn a year, would also help address public health concerns around air quality and obesity.
Mike Childs, the head of research at Friends of the Earth, said the outlay was a fraction of road spending. He said: “Dozens of cities across the world offer some form of free public transport. …”
” …Improving the bus system would bring about significant productivity gains. If, for example, journey times became as reliable at peak hours as they are off-peak, the effective size of Birmingham would increase from 900,000 to 1.3 million people. Assuming UK cities would enjoy the same agglomeration benefits as those in France, Forth calculates that would mean an increase in output per head of 7%. …”
“Around 90% of English councils have been forced cut council tax support for working age claimants, meaning many low-income households have fallen behind with their council tax bills, according to new research.
A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has highlighted the impact of the government’s decision to abolish the centralised council tax support (CTS) for low-income households in 2013, which has seen an extra 1.3 million working-age households sent a council tax bill.
Nearly five million households received localised tax support in 2017-18, costing local authorities a total of £4.1bn – and 2.4 million working-age people received support, with an average benefit of £770 per year.
But the IFS has estimated that councils have failed to collect one-quarter of the extra council tax that low-income households have been billed as a result of the funding cuts.
This explosion of unpaid council tax is around 10 times higher than the 2.5% of council tax uncollected by local authorities under the old CTS system.
CTS schemes have also continued to become less generous since they have suffered funding cuts and were brought under local council control – and the report reveals that low-income households in poor parts of England are more likely to have been affected than those in affluent areas.
Director of welfare at the Nuffield Foundation, Mark Franks, said: “The fact that local authorities are unable to collect around one quarter of the additional council tax they have asked for indicates that support schemes are not working as effectively as they could.
“This important research should help in reviewing the design of council tax support schemes and the benchmarks they are based on.”
The report stated that giving people an entirely new bill is what seems so problematic with this type of tax collection.
Thomas Pope, one of the authors of the report and an IFS researcher, commented: “Many low-income households do not pay this new bill, almost regardless of its size. From their point of view, these changes have clearly increased problems with council tax arrears.
“From councils’ point of view, they are likely to receive significantly more council tax if they increase bills for those already paying some council tax than if they try to raise the same extra money from those who currently have no bill to pay.”
Owl wonders how EDDC is getting on with Grenadier in Exmouth …..
“Uncertainty over the impact of Brexit on the UK property market has hit two major council investment projects.
Essex County Council this week formally removed £6m from the budget for its £50m property investment fund after pausing further purchases due to worries over Brexit.
Meanwhile, Brighton & Hove City Council has been forced to delay the signing of a development agreement on a regeneration scheme in which it is planning to invest £8m.
The problems emerged in a week that communities secretary James Brokenshire announced allocations for councils under a new £56m fund to help them prepare for Brexit.
In a report to councillors, Margaret Lee, executive director for corporate and customer services, recommended the £6m reduction in Essex’s property investment fund, saying: “Due to the uncertainties caused by Brexit and the potential impact on the property market, the scheme has been paused with no further purchases planned.”
The pause in investment was originally agreed by Essex councillors in November, after advice from its adviser Hymans Robertson not to expand its commercial property programme “due to the current market conditions including the unknown impact of Brexit”.
However, the council has now decided to remove £6m from the investment programme budget as part of a package of measures that will help the authority reach a forecast underspend of £29.6m in its 2018/19 capital spending programme.
Before the programme was halted, £44m of the fund had been spent on property, which the council says is already yielding £1m for council services.
Essex is set to review whether to restart commercial property investment through the fund during the summer.
Meanwhile, in Brighton, councillors have been forced to delay a deadline they set for housebuilder Crest Nicholson to sign the development agreement on the King Alfred leisure centre and housing regeneration scheme.
Originally, councillors had proposed to walk away from discussions with the developer unless it signed the deal by 31 January.
However, it extended the deadline until 30 March – the day after the UK’s date for leaving the European Union (EU), following a last minute plea from Crest.
In a letter to the council, it cited “challenging economic uncertainties surrounding Brexit and the impact this could yet have on the construction industry workforce and wider confidence and stability of the property market”.
It added that “as soon as we have greater certainty over the nature and form of the Brexit arrangement which we all hope and expect will be achieved shortly, and assuming this does give reasonable certainty over the future trading relations with Europe, then we will enter into the development agreement and commit the team and resources required to promote the scheme, develop the design and seek planning in accordance with the conditions and programme”.
In 2016, the council committed £8m to the project, which comprises a sports centre, swimming pool, underground parking and 565 homes in blocks of up to 18 storeys high.”
Owl wonders how it would have been treated if it had not been a Tory council …
Its audit bill has ballooned:
“In its final audit report released this week, auditor KPMG said delays have been caused by the slow and patchy provision of information by the council and departures of key staff at the authority.
The extra work caused by the delays would more than quadruple its original fee of £71,250, it said.
The report said: “We stated during the audit committee on 26 November 2018 that this had now risen, at that date, to approximately £300,000 in total (i.e. including original scale fee).”
http://www.room151.co.uk/funding/delays-cause-northampton-audit-bill-to-balloon/
and
It is being allowed to raise an extra 2% on council tax without the (legal) need to hold a referendum:
“The council had already proposed raising council tax by 2.99%, the maximum amount it could do before holding a local vote.
The final settlement stated: “For 2019-20, the relevant basic amount of council tax of Northamptonshire County Council is excessive if the authority’s relevant basic amount of council tax for 2019-20 is 5% or more than 5% greater than its relevant basic amount of council tax for 2018-19”. …
When classified as “excessive”, a local authority must hold a referendum on its proposed tax hike.
In November, in a bending of the rules by the government, Northamptonshire was given permission to use £70m of capital receipts to help balance its budget.
The final statement otherwise largely confirmed what was contained in the earlier provisional settlement in December, with core spending power rising by 2.8% in cash terms from £45.1bn in 2018-19 to £46.4bn in 2019-20.
In real terms this is almost a freeze.”
http://www.room151.co.uk/funding/northamptonshire-thrown-a-lifeline-again/
“”Local bus journeys in Devon are at a record low – with campaigners warning the national network is now in “crisis”.
The latest figures from the Department for Transport reveal that 24.2 million journeys were made on local bus services in Devon in 2017/18. That’s nearly two million fewer journeys than the year before, and the lowest number since at least 2009/10, when the figures were first published.
The Campaign for Better Transport say that the fall in the number of passengers taking the bus is due to ongoing cuts in funding for these services, resulting in fewer services and higher fares.
Nationally, average local bus fares across England have increased by 12 per cent since 2009, after inflation.
Darren Shirley, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: “The statistics back up what our research has been showing for years – that buses are in crisis.
“Local bus services are vital, linking millions of us to jobs, education, shops and services, friends and family. They open up opportunities and help to fight loneliness. …
… The Local Government Association says nearly half of all bus routes in England currently receive partial or complete subsidies from councils.
With councils in England facing an overall funding gap that will reach £8 billion by 2025, the LGA said councils will struggle to maintain current subsidies for bus routes across the country unless this is
addressed in the Spending Review.
Martin Tett, the Local Government Association’s transport spokesman, said: “Councils know how important buses are for their residents and local economies and are desperate to protect them.
“It’s nearly impossible for councils to keep subsidising free travel while having to find billions of pounds worth of savings and protect other vital services like caring for the elderly and disabled, protecting children, filling potholes and collecting bins.
“Faced with significant funding pressures, many across the country are being forced into taking difficult decisions to scale back services and review subsidised routes.” …
… Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “These figures are alarming, and underline the devastating impact of Tory cuts on local bus services.
“Bus networks are in a spiral of decline, cutting people off from work and education and friends and family, particularly those in rural areas or from low income backgrounds.
“For many people, buses are the only form of public transport available. And the bulk of the people that use and rely on buses are often the poor, the young, the old and the vulnerable.
“At the same time, cutting and withdrawing services is worsening congestion, air pollution and our impact on climate change.”
“The government should give local authorities the powers to franchise and municipalise buses and boost bus funding, and allow them to take back regulatory powers so that they can set the fares, routes, and timetables that will put their communities first, ahead of the interests of private profit.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/crisis-local-bus-journeys-devon-2489912
“Bus companies in England pocketed a total of £3.3bn in profits while they presided over swingeing cuts to vital routes, figures show.
Private firms together made hundreds of millions operating busses outside London each year since the coalition government came to power in 2010, official data has revealed.
Yet a report by the Transport Commissioner found almost 17,000 bus routes have disappeared over the past five years.
HuffPost UK reported last week how tightened council budgets have made bus services that were under-used, but previously considered essential, vulnerable to cuts.
Labour – which analysed the figures – said the stats highlighted how the bus industry “puts profit before millions of passengers”. …”
“”Cutting and withdrawing services is worsening congestion, air pollution and our impact on climate change.”
“The number of passenger journeys made by bus in England fell by 85 million last year, amid “devastating” cuts on local services.
Passenger journeys declined by 3.2% outside London, continuing a decade-long trend, while bus use in the capital fell by 0.7%, according to the latest figures from the Department for Transport.
Out of 88 local authorities in England outside London, 70 saw a fall in bus use since 2009/10.
Labour said the new figures underlined the impact of Conservative policies, and underlined “the devastating impact of Tory cuts on local bus services”.
Andy McDonald, shadow transport secretary, said: “These figures underline the People are being denied opportunities in work and education and are cut off from friends and family, particularly those in rural areas or from low income backgrounds.”
These figures underline the devastating impact of Tory cuts on local bus servicesAndy McDonald, Shadow Transport Secretary
MacDonald added: “At the same time, cutting and withdrawing services is worsening congestion, air pollution and our impact on climate change.
“A Labour government will act in the interest of the many by putting investment back into bus services, protecting pensioners’ bus passes and introducing a new free pass for under 25s.” …”
East Devon Watch 