Your say / Transport
‘The Lib Dems’ Creative Budget to Get the City Moving’
Last week saw the council’s budget debated. The Liberal Democrat group put forward an ambitious amendment which would have radically changed the way the city moves. Our proposal to set up a city fund would have supported initiatives encouraging bus use, cycling and sustainable transport use. This investment could have been a means to accelerate progress on several projects including park and rides, dedicated cycleways, rail, and a major Metro Bus expansion. It will not be available for road expansion or road building projects.
The Lib Dems’ budget amendment would have been used to expand the Metro Buses in Bristol
Our plan would have also offered a new youth travel card service for passengers in Bristol up to 25 years old. This would extend the current 30 per cent discount across all participating bus companies, currently available only to under-21s on First buses.
We also called for the council to put their weight behind a London-style bus franchising system for Bristol. The campaign ‘Take Control of Bristol’s Buses’ has already over 3,000 signatures and is expected to be brought before the council soon.
is needed now More than ever
We made positive and bold suggestions, once again identifying funding not used by the Mayor which we can instead invest in our city and people.
Last year he and Labour councillors voted down our amendment in the chamber ignoring sensible suggestions by other groups, only to find themselves dragged into court by local residents and be found to have acted illegally.
This year we once again offered a practical amendment, which would have created a catalyst to attract transport investment. Sadly, our hope that Labour councillors would put partisanship to one side evaporated.
This was a lost opportunity for an open discussion between all councillors about the future of transport in Bristol. Sadly, every year the budget appears to be treated as more of a talking shop for politicians than an opportunity to constructively present and discuss the policy agenda for our city.
Once again, the Mayor is borrowing more money to sit unused rather than investing in Bristol. While austerity is cutting the council’s budget, we do have the ability to borrow to invest in fixing problems before they become more expensive to deal with.
All of this once again points to the crux of the problem: the broken way in which our city is run. We have backroom staff in the Mayor’s office costing Bristolians hundreds of thousands of pounds without much positive change for our city. When councillors were able to do their jobs, we were able to radically transform Bristol for the better.
The Liberal Democrat plan was bold and practical. Improving transport, reducing the city’s congestion and cleaning up air pollution is the top priority for Bristolians, but we have seen little real action from the Mayor on any of these.
That is why our budget proposed a step change – encouraging young people to use buses rather than cars, campaigning for a franchise scheme in Bristol to ensure our buses are run for the public good and creating an investment fund to get big projects underway for bus, rail and cycling so we can provide decent alternatives to congested traffic every day.
Sadly, none of these urgent reforms have been passed by the Mayor, who every day is losing the confidence of the city when it comes to thinking big and delivering for Bristol.
Tim Kent is the Liberal Democrat councillor for Hengrove and Whitchurch Park.
Read more: How to fix Bristol’s public transport
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