We need a ring road Options

[Richard Garvie]

No doubt a team of experts has been employed to work this figure out, and it hasn't just been scribbled out on the pack of a fag packet.

Get one of the pocket timetables and work it out yourself or ring reading busses. Remember we are talking about subsidised routes.

[Richard Garvie]

And of course WBC don't bother with any of this do they.

Well, all through the LTP they talk about more choice and providing better options but in real terms, they are axing routes.

*But we still pay around £2m a year!!!

[On the edge]

Newbury does seem to be taken for a ride by 'Reading Buses' in more ways than one. Not surprising really and the answer is in the title. Very few public transport systems world wide make a profit. However, most civilised countries recognise the importance. There are also better finance models than private company or local council. What's wrong with a non profit making trust, or a co-operative, or dare I suggest a public board? We just need some initiative and some imagination - at least Reading solved the problem...!

[Richard Garvie]

Check out some of the Urban Bus Challenge schemes, that is the sort of standard that we should be aiming for. But yes on the edge, you're on the button. West Berkshire delegates the majority of all decisions to officers, and the authority is now a target driven business. That's why the LDF is in danger of going belly up. Not because people don't want an LDF, the officers are insisting on railroading their own ideas through.

[user23]

Check out some of the Urban Bus Challenge schemes, that is the sort of standard that we should be aiming for. But yes on the edge, you're on the button. West Berkshire delegates the majority of all decisions to officers, and the authority is now a target driven business. That's why the LDF is in danger of going belly up. Not because people don't want an LDF, the officers are insisting on railroading their own ideas through.

So do we need a ring road, or not?

[Jayjay]

A bus service is provided to make money for the company that operates it.

£2million will be for the whole of West Berks. How many routes is that? How many buses, drivers, maintenance staff ? If there is a surplus here ( ie £2million is too much ) & cash is being wasted, why doesn't Labour offer to bring in bus operation into council control? Merely pointing the finger & saying that Labour would 'go to tender' isn't really going to improve the situation is it?

In my experience, businesses normally continue to run something if they can make money doing it. If RB want to cancel a route, it stands to reason that they want to cancel it because they are not making money, even with a subsidy. Just because you subsidise something does not mean it will run regardless.

So, on the same reasoning, I assume you advocate postal deliveries only on profitable rounds?

[Iommi]

In my experience, businesses normally continue to run something if they can make money doing it. If RB want to cancel a route, it stands to reason that they want to cancel it because they are not making money, even with a subsidy. Just because you subsidise something does not mean it will run regardless.

That would, or should be established in when an SLA is drawn.

[dannyboy]

So, on the same reasoning, I assume you advocate postal deliveries only on profitable rounds?

The Royal Mail is still a state run enterprise. So 'profitability' should not enter into the equation. If it was just another courier/mail company, then yes, I would expect to see changes, including the removal of under used services.

Roland Hill proved 170 years ago that it cost no less to deliver a letter locally than nationally.

[Iommi]

We seem to have gone off the beaten track; what's the argument again?

[user23]

We seem to have gone off the beaten track; what's the argument again?

Do we need a ring road, or not?

We haven't resolved this question but we do seem to have learned that Labour could do everything much better and cheaper than anyone else.

[Iommi]

Do we need a ring road, or not? We haven't resolved this question but we do seem to have learned that Labour could do everything much better and cheaper than anyone else.

...and with more honesty and with greater altruistic intentions; presumably.

[Richard Garvie]

Do we need a ring road, or not?

We haven't resolved this question but we do seem to have learned that Labour could do everything much better and cheaper than anyone else.

No, I've suggested how it could be done more effectively and how inept the current administration is.

[On the edge]

Do we need a ring road, or not?

We haven't resolved this question but we do seem to have learned that Labour could do everything much better and cheaper than anyone else.

I'd hazard we've learned that some aspiring local politician has a few good ideas. Rather more perhaps than the existing crop seem to have had in the past 12 years. I'm sure the Labour party itself won't have any detailed view about dear old Newbury. Any more than Conservative Party HO or the LibDem Assembly (or whatever) has.

[Simon Kirby]

Anywho, the ring road. I'm disturbed this is how major transport infrastructure is decided: Cllr Howard Bairstow hears a presentation to the Town Council and suddenly he's an expert in sustainable urban travel? What we need is an integrated strategic sustainable plan for settlement, industry, employment, and travel, and that takes political vision, and enough insight to know that the details need leaving to professionals. What we actually have is piecemeal development, and throwing a ringroad round it will just guild the t*rd.

[Richard Garvie]

It's funny you say that Simon, because that is what the LDF is supposed to be.