Labour

Transport budget shambles reveals half a billion pounds was needlessly cut from local bus services - Maria Eagle

Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to the Transport Select Committee’s revelation that the Department for Transport handed back £543 million to the Treasury at the end of the 2010/11 financial year, said:
 
"The Tory-led Government’s decision to cut more than half a billion pounds from support for buses across England last year has seen the loss of one in five local bus services. The consequence of these cuts has been young people left unable to carry on with education or training. Staying on rates are down at 60 per cent of further education colleges while evidence shows young people are now skipping meals just to be able to afford to get the bus to their school, college or training.
 
"Yet it now turns out that these cuts were completely unnecessary thanks to a budget shambles at the Department for Transport which saw a £543 million under-spend being handed back to the Treasury. This sum could have protected local bus services from the impact of the spending review.
 
"It’s time for Ministers to stop washing their hands of the cuts to bus services, end the blame game with local authorities and accept that it was their own shambolic book keeping which has laid waste to our vital bus services up and down the country."