Bridport town councillors hit back at bus service consultation (From Dorset Echo)

Bridport town councillors hit back at bus service consultation

11:00am Monday 11th March 2013 in News

A CONSULTATION about bus services by Dorset County Council has come under fire from Bridport town councillors.

Despite its drawbacks, councillors still want people to let the authority know how vital bus services are in a rural area.

Town councillors discussed the consultation at a recent plans meeting.

Coun Dave Rickard said: “The consultation questionnaire is exceedingly badly put together.

“It serves one purpose – to get information from people who regularly use buses.

“But the problem in all rural areas is most people don’t have access to the buses they need and there are no questions saying ‘would you like a better service – is there something you can’t do?’ “They ask you how many times a week you use the bus but don’t ask you how many times you don’t use a bus because it didn’t exist.”

Coun Rickard met youngsters at a youth council meeting, he said, and they had lots of concerns about buses.

He said: “The young people looked at the survey and even those who use the buses thought it was irrelevant.

“There is not very much about times of the buses and that is one of the things the young people talked about.”

Now the 31 has taken off its last bus youngsters can’t stay to the end of youth club or go to after school clubs, he said. Consultation forms can be filled in online or collected from libraries and council offices.