Coun Auckland claimed the Labour Government is not 'doing a great deal' to re-regulate bus services.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

On March 26, the Government brought forward legislation to the Commons which will give local authorities the power to re-regulate bus services. The legislation, which will become law later this year, will allow Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster to determine routes, frequencies and maximum fares via quality contracts. In other words, councils would have the right to stipulate what kinds of bus services we need to properly serve our communities and to have some influence over the fares charged. Services would no longer chop and change as they do at the moment, there would be more stability in the system, no doubt to the great relief of bus users everywhere.

This legislation has been welcomed by the Lib Dem spokesperson for Transport in Parliament. Norman Baker said in the Commons he welcomed the Bill and he and his colleagues would support it. He also indicated he thought the Bill took us 'undoubtedly … in the right direction'.

There is still work to do on this new legislation but I believe we will get from it the best opportunity we've had for over twenty years to bring a degree of common sense to the arrangements we make for our local bus service.

I call on the Liberal Democrat City Council to stop carping and to start working with the other councils in South Yorkshire in planning to use these new powers. To do anything else would be a betrayal of the trust placed in them by the people of Sheffield.

Angela Smith, MP for Sheffield, Hillsborough





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