Derbyshire County Council calls out High Peak MP’s negative attitude to bus services

In last week’s edition of the Buxton Advertiser, newly elected Jon Pearce said public transport across the High Peak is ‘not working for people’.

He went on to say the cost, coverage and reliability of bus services have been raised with him at his regular surgeries and the loss of several services has been devastating to residents.

However Derbyshire County Councillor Charlotte Cupit, cabinet member for highways assets and Transport in Derbyshire, says this is untrue.

She said: “I read with interest the column written by the new MP for High Peak, Jon Pearce, about buses in the High Peak.

“It’s disappointing he’s so far not contacted me on this issue.

“Mr Pearce was apparently keen to raise problems.

“He raised concerns over the cost: I don’t know the last time Mr Pearce went on a bus, but the Conservative Government capped all single bus fares at £2 until the end of this year.

“Hopefully Mr Pearce’s government will extend this – and keep passes for older and disabled people.

“The success he claims on Our Pass has actually come from the support of our b-line scheme for young people.”

She says Mr Pearce gave a list of services that had ‘disappeared’.

She said: “Some of these ‘lost’ services were funded by Manchester, not Derbyshire; one we don’t think ever existed; and one was replaced by another service.

“And for the so-called reduced services, one was again a Manchester service and one has been improved.”

Mr Pearce said in his column ‘buses matter and Labour has a plan to create and save vital routes and services’.

However, Cllr Cupit said what was missing from Mr Pearce’s column was what the council had put back into public transport.

She said: “We have put back or improved a whole range of services recently.

“This is due to Derbyshire County Council gaining £47 million in bus funding from the previous Government.

“In High Peak alone, we’ve introduced the Buxton Buzz, 257 and the Peak Pathfinder linking some communities for the first time – as commuters have told me whilst I’ve been on it and the open-top Peak Sightseer routes, which provides a boost to tourism too.”

New passenger figures from Derbyshire County Council show the Buxton Buzz, has seen a 59 per cent increase in passengers using it so far.

The Transpeak Derby to Buxton route has also seen passenger figures increase by 23 per cent in the first nine months of each service when compared to the same period from the year before.

Cllr Cupit said: “My main issue with what Mr Pearce said was he was running bus services down.

“And what every bus needs, no matter if it is a commercial service, or one funded by the council, is passengers.

“People just won’t use the bus if all they hear about them is negative.”

She added: “There’s lots more to do but we’ve so much that is positive to share.

“Passenger numbers are up, as is reliability and frequency of services.

“We’ll continue to work on actually improving services for residents rather than shouting from the sidelines.”