Chaos of bus deregulation

The ITV's Tonight programme told us that people are taking up to an hour to get to work, and that's local.
BusesBuses
Buses

We were told years ago that we would have gridlock, well it’s almost here, leave it much longer and it will be gridlocked.

I keep seeing letters in The Star about the chaos on the roads in Sheffield.

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Who can we blame? We were well known in the Sheffield region for having the best bus service in the country until the Conservatives brought in deregulation. Profit-making firms came in, bus fares went up, service numbers were changed, bus stops were spaced out. Competition does not work with local buses.

With fare rises passenger numbers went down, hence more fare rises to compensate, leading to people using their cars.

With fewer passengers, bus services became uneconomic, then bus numbers were cut and more passengers got in their cars. Now we have chaos in the country, apart from London, where there was no deregulation.

I am old enough to remember before deregulation and I often had to stand when travelling to work because the buses were so full. My husband, an ex-bus driver, used to tell me the Dinnington-to-Sheffield route used to run full before deregulation and he saw his passenger numbers drop after, and that was just one route.

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You don’t have to be a brain surgeon, it’s staring you in the face.

Rose M Basford

Tinsley

Medically qulaified?

Your reader EB Warris makes a sensible suggestion in his Your View: Pharmacies letter, Star, February 14, if he refers to minor ailments which can be treated with over-the- counter medication.

I must disagree with him regarding pharmacists being medically qualified, and by implication, being able to diagnose and treat all medical conditions. They are not trained and qualified to do so and this should be left to one’s doctor to deal with.

I have used my local pharmacy for ailments and have often been told that my recommended treatment eg. antibiotics etc, requires a doctor’s prescription, resulting in a visit to the surgery and a wasted one to the pharmacy.

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I wholeheartedly agree with your correspondent that “a complete rethink on the way that people have to obtain medical treatment is way overdue.”

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5

Snow some respect

When you mysteriously find the snow on Bingham Park Crescent cleared,

It’s probably one of the tree campaigners SCC have smeared.

My elderly step-dad doesn’t have an MBE or even know how to #FBPE

He’s one of the hidden, daily heroes you don’t see

He’s the one who gets your grit bin filled – not Amey

So, when Greystones Hall Road creates an ice-ring for cars to skate

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It wouldn’t happen quite so often if you rang SCC once in a while, mate.

So, here’s SCC’s number to give us a break : 0114 2734567

When you get through, just dial 2

Then for once, it’s over to you.

LW

by email

What are they paid for?

Could someone please enlighten me on why Union leaders want a soft Brexit, or no Brexit, in order to protect their members’ jobs etc,?

Not just Unite’s Len McCluskey but now Scottish union leader and Sturgeon friend Grahame Smith is at it bleating on about saving Scottish jobs. What do their members pay subs for?

Just to allow these leaders to do no more than spout from behind a desk and rely on the EU?

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It’s time they got organised as in the past, instead of hoping that the EU will bail them out. Maybe it’s too much to ask their members to down tools in order to protect their jobs, unlike the railwaymen who are prepared to do just that to protect their jobs and wages.

They, unlike McCluskey and Smith, don’t have to be tied to the coat tails of the EU ‘bully boys’ to achieve this.

You laughed at Scargill when he put his neck on the block when fighting for his members’ jobs while other union leaders shunned him as did the EU. Some union leaders even helped Thatcher in smashing through picket lines and in totally destroying our coal industry, communities and jobs and got their peerage for doing just that. You’re not laughing now, are you?

Just bleating for help from the non-elected undemocratic ‘bully boys’ of the EU.

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The penny will drop eventually in that you get nothing from the elitist establishment without a fight.

Always been like that and always will be.

By the way Germany and Poland etc, are still mining coal, but maybe not for long ?

Terry Palmer

South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley, S74

Worse for the homeless

Dame Louise Casey, a real tough cookie, was a ‘homeless Tsar’ in the past. She was on BBC Radio 4 recently and said Theresa May’s government had made things worse for the homeless.

She mentioned outreach and others have said benefit changes have crucified those without a roof over their heads.

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The Tory government has talked about solving the rough sleepers’ problem in many years time. Surely urgency is the ticket.

We had a homeless chap who lost half a leg. He was allocated a flat.

Max Nottingham

Lincoln

Pulling out all the stops

Well all the stops have been pulled out this year with Tramlines.

New location and headlining Noel Gallagher and Sterophonics. What’s not to like?

Oh and Sheffield’s own Reverend, bring it on.

Jayne Grayson

by email