Better buses needed for Halewood says Lib Dem. (Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats)

Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats <info@garstonld.org.uk>

Better buses needed for Halewood says Lib Dem.

October 3, 2008 12:00 AM

photo of bus Halewood Lib Dem Cllr Dave Smithson raised transport concerns in Halewood with Party leader Nick Clegg MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Norman Baker MP this week.

At a summit held in Warrington of Lib Dem leaders from across the North West, Cllr Smithson asked Nick Clegg and Norman Baker to do more to help tackle the problems created by bus de-regulation that caused misery to many Halewood residents.

Cllr Smithson highlighted the problems local residents have travelling to Springwood cemetery and Speke retail park on a Sunday when no service runs directly there from Halewood and THE difficulties they experience getting to Whiston Hospital.

In response Nick Clegg said: "As an MP in a constituency in a large city such as Sheffield I know exactly how frustrating this can be. I send more time campaigning on bus services on my patch than anything else.

"There is no doubt that the de-regulation of bus services has been an unmitigated disaster and I can't understand why we can't have the same degree of regulation that exists in London in cities like Sheffield, Liverpool and even Halewood."

Norman Baker MP added: "The government has clearly recognised in its Local transport Bill that there is a problem with bus services nationally, but their proposals do not go far enough.

"We are working behind the scenes to move amendments to the Bill and I agree that we need to move to a system similar to that we see in London."

Cllr Smithson added: "I'm very grateful to both Nick and Norman for taking the time to listen to our transport issues and for reassuring us that the Lib Dems in Parliament are working hard to improve bus services in areas like Halewood."