Bus responses

Mr Baker rightly refers to the halving of local bus services in recent years as a result of a huge reduction in public transport funding.

This is just one symptom of the way in which limited resources are being diverted to grandiose schemes which fail completely to meet the needs of local residents.

The attitude behind this was best summarised recently by the Conservative MP Mark Garnier, when he declared that there was no reason to pay any attention to the electorate in constituencies such as Thirsk and Malton, because we were only “dog-end voters in outlying regions”. It is this mindset that has driven transport policy for two generations now.

The truth is that there are limitless public funds available for grandiose transport schemes, of which HS2 is the most shameful example. If you visit the EU website on ec.europa.eu/transport/themes, you will see that HS2 is nothing to do with the needs of London or Birmingham and everything to do with creating an imperial high-speed rail network for those who benefit from the new European empire.

Tens of billions of pounds of resources are being diverted to feed this monster but, if our rulers were serious about improving communications within the UK, there are far more sensible ways to achieve this, not least by restoring part of the old LMS network that was wantonly torn up during the 1950s and 1960s.

The StopHS2 website on stophs2.org/ spells out all too clearly the case against this looming disaster. UKIP would make the cancellation of HS2 along with all the other EU vanity projects a condition of entering any government. Savings would be diverted to improved local transport investment, including investment in bus services. As with other expenditure, transport initiatives should come from the grass roots upwards and not from some distant bureaucrat’s master plan.

During the next few weeks, I will return to this theme in my weekly blog, Toby on Tuesday, on ukip-tm.org.uk

This is a running commentary on issues of vital importance to voters in Thirsk, Malton and Filey, and it would be good if all candidates standing for election in May were to do something similar. In this way, voters could find out exactly where the candidates and their parties stand on these great issues.

So to Mr Baker I say, UKIP shares your concerns and would ask you, while campaigning for the restoration of good local bus services, to join the call for an end to grandiose schemes that soak up public subsidy, drain resources from Mr Garnier’s “outlying regions” and achieve less than nothing for our long-suffering taxpayers.

Toby Horton, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, UKIP Thirsk and Malton

• Brian Baker, chairman of North Ryedale Public Transport Group, asks Parliamentary candidates to set out their policies on bus services (Gazette & Herald, January 7). In my view, we must frame any debate on spending and services around what we can afford.

While the current Government has delivered a 33 per cent reduction in the annual deficit, the UK is still spending about £100bn per annum more than it collects in taxes. Labour, despite benefiting from a growing economy, ran a deficit in nine of its 13 years in power, contributing to a current total UK debt of almost £1.4 trillion.

As part of the challenge to balance the books, the current Government has imposed signficant reductions in budgets for local governments. North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) will have made savings of £94m by March and needs to make a further £73m over the next four years, so has to take very difficult decisions.

Subsidies for bus services are likely to be cut, which will have particular impact on the least used routes. I understand that NYCC will, quite rightly, set aside a significant sum of money to help those most in need, vulnerable and disadvantaged.

In my several meetings with NYCC, I have made clear that cuts to services, such as rural bus subsidies and libraries, should be the last resort and that reductions to internal back office and management roles be prioritised.

NYCC has worked hard to deliver internal savings but needs to deliver more efficiencies internally rather than simply reducing frontline services.

The choice at the forthcoming General Election is clear, a Conservative government that will live within its means, partially by asking communities to provide local services where it it is able or, as illustrated by my counterpart in his letter last week, a Labour government that will make unplanned and unfunded spending promises that will lead us back to the brink of bankruptcy.

Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Thirsk and Malton Constituency