South Lanarkshire councillors came together to reach a consensus on a motion to protect bus services in the area.
At the full council meeting on Wednesday (March 2), Liberal-Democrat and Labour councillors came to an agreement on a motion to strengthen bus services within communities.
Liberal-Democrat councillor Mark McGeever brought forward the motion but it was countered by an amendment from Labour’s Joe Fagan.
The Hamilton West and Earnock councillor said: “This motion is intent on putting on record that our council wants a change and that we stand for our council to do that.”
The Liberal-Democrat motion urges First Bus to reinstate the X1, the 31 and other bus routes that have been withdrawn, call on the Scottish and UK governments to work with bus providers to address challenges and to encourage the leaders of all eight councils of the Glasgow City region to explore the creation of a London-style model of bus provision.
The East Kilbride Central North councillor said: “Can I thank Mark McGeever genuinely for bringing this motion forward.
"The Labour group have long advocated structural change in our bus network. I have to be candid that I had lost faith to some extent in the current council based on past experience, but that to me is why that motion is welcome and I think the commitment to the London-style model of transport is welcome in particular.
"And maybe the experience that councillors have had with withdrawal of bus service has prompted people to re-evaluate and strengthen the position.
“Our belief is that there will be no serious integrated reliable London-style network until the deregulated system is abolished and I think that we need to make the most of our new bus franchising powers and incidentally.”
The Labour amendment was welcomed subject to some change proposed by Councillor McGeever and didn’t differ majorly from the motion.
The amendment from the Labour group, called to change the ‘Glasgow City Region’ aspect to ‘Strathclyde’ and to incorporate the leaders of all Strathclyde Partnership for transport member authorities to commit to the creation of a London-style model of bus provision across the Strathclyde region, including the ability for councils to identify routes that must be provided by operators.
The Labour amendment also called to support the extension of municipal control and ownership of bus services to ensure bus networks better serve the needs of passengers and communities across all areas of Strathclyde, including rural communities.
Also, an additional point was added to read “regard voluntary agreements and Bus Service Improvement Partnerships as inadequate solutions to bus network decline that must be rejected in favour of progressive systems of democratic control, such as a London-style franchising framework and municipal ownership and control of local bus services”.
In relation to the amendment, Councillor McGeever said: "I actually find myself in more agreement with them than what I anticipated, I don’t have any huge issues with it to be honest.
“What I would say is that in the interest of getting maximum consensus across the council, I’m not able to fully support that at the moment. However, I wonder if he would be agreeable to simply adding into the amendment on their points three and four. I would be happy to accept that on that basis if that is agreeable.”
Councillor Fagan accepted the points from Councillor McGeever, and the points from the original motion were added.
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