WOODLEY’S Labour councillor has warned that a pledge by the Conservatives to instate a bus route is worthless.
At a meeting of last week’s Executive at Wokingham Borough Council, councillors vote to put the 12 bus route – formerly the 19a/c – out for bus companies to tender.
It said that it currently subsidises the route run by Reading Buses, but the contract on this specific bus route has now come to an end.
The decision comes after a consultation and public meeting. Collectively, more than 800 responded, shaping the tender document that the council will invite companies to bid for.
This includes:
- The provision of peak hour and more frequent journeys
- Better links to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
- Hourly trips
- Morning and evening rush hours.
It is hoped that the new service will be in place for September.
“This service is a much-loved and valuable facility in Woodley and Earley,” said Cllr Keith Baker, executive member for highways and transport.
“Residents want and need the morning service put back so that they can use it to get to work and to their early hospital appointments. They rely on it. It’s a real community service.”
The council said that it offered Reading Buses an increased subsidy, but commercial viability meant the bus company was unable to keep the peak morning journeys. The 12 route which was then set up as a temporary ‘town service’, in those areas of Woodley and Earley without a commercial bus service, to provide a stop gap until the start of the new tender.
Under the new proposals, the 983 schools service to Bulmershe School and Waingels College would continue to operate but as a separate service.
“The consensus from everyone who took part in our consultation and meetings was that the current 12 service does not meet the needs of the community,” said Cllr Baker.
“This is why this tender process, which will start this spring, is so important.”
Opposition parties expressed their concern over the plans.
Reading East MP Matt Rodda, whose constituency includes Earley and Woodley, said: “I’m concerned about the future of bus services in Woodley and Earley and I am calling on Wokingham Borough Council to provide high quality services and to stand up for the interests of all residents in Woodley and Whitegates.”
However, Labour councillor Andy Croy was stronger in his criticism accusing the Executive of hoping that the issue will go away.
He told The Wokingham Paper: “The Tories at Wokingham Borough council have absolutely no intention of reinstating the 19a/19c service as stated by their press release. Only the 19a/19c has been lost and that is the only that service that can reinstated.
“The proposal before the Executive explicitly did not include the 19a/19c despite it being the clear wish of residents to have this service restored and even though other, more expensive options were included.
“I asked the Executive to consider the restoration of the 19a/c as an option but they refused to even consider it.
“The Tories are hoping this issue will just go away. They refused to offer adequate subsidy to Reading Buses and most bizarrely of all, used a Council meeting to tell Reading Buses to apologise – for a service cut by Tory austerity.
“Fortunately, Woodley Labour and I have worked closely with residents to ensure a proper, alternative consultation took place, including the holding of a public meeting chaired by our new Labour member of Parliament. The idea of a public meeting somehow slipped the minds of both the Tories and WBC.
“We have made sure the strength of public feeling is known. The Tories are frankly in denial and are hoping to kick this into the long grass until after the local elections in May.”
