About 120 people attending a meeting at Milton Community Centre on Thursday night (17/3) to discuss the proposed bus cuts with representatives from Stagecoach and the County Council.
On the panel, from left to right, were:
- David Geasor – assistant clerk to Milton Parish Council (taking the minutes)
- Cllr Hazel Smith – one of our district councillors
- Richard Summerfield – chairman of our parish council
- Cllr Michael Williamson – our county councillor
- Glenn Edge, Head of Transport Services at Cambridgeshire County Council
- Philip Norwell, Commercial Director of Stagecoach East
- Andy Campbell, Managing Director of Stagecoach East
After an introduction by Cllr Williamson Mr Norwell and Mr Campbell explained the situation from their organisations’ points of view and then it was thrown open to the floor for questions and comments.
People raised many interesting points and while appearing sympathetic to our predicament the general message from Stagecoach seemed to be that the loss of the subsidy to the evening and weekend services from the county council along with the reduction in the amount Stagecoach gets per bus pass user trip (which has recently been reduced by central government) means that the Citi 2 service, which had already been blighted by the introduction of the Park and Ride service, is no longer economic.
The only real concession we got was they would look at putting on a late evening service to Milton, probably making the last Citi 2 extend its service as far as Milton so we would have a bus out at around 11pm, as we did in the old days of the 19, which would at least give some means for people to get home safely late in the evening.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend.
