Getting to the County town, even if it isn’t necessarily where you want to go...

A fellow Liberal Democrat colleague from the north-east of the County has made the point that, if you want to go to the County town by bus, you can’t, at least not directly. Indeed, you can’t even do it with a single change of bus, although there is a direct train service.

And, as I think about it, that’s true for a large chunk of the county - there’s no direct bus from Bury St Edmunds, or Newmarket, or Haverhill, to Ipswich, let alone Beccles or Lowestoft. So, unless you live within striking distance of a railway station, Ipswich becomes more remote and thus less useful.

And that matters because services are seldom provided on any basis other than countywide. If, for example, you wanted to engage with the National Citizen Service scheme, and you live in Haverhill, you have to get to Ipswich, regardless of the fact that there is a regular, reliable bus service to much nearer Cambridge. For Lowestoft, Norwich is a far more attractive destination than Ipswich is, and much easier to reach. Which, of course, is why we have “Travel to Work Areas”.

As someone who had previously paid little (alright, virtually no) attention to the minutiae of local government previously, becoming a Parish councillor introduced me to a whole new world of stuff, including the idea of a “desire path”. And public transport works like that. As a planner you might think that people want to go from A to B, but the reality is that they’d rather go to C, or D, or even E. County boundaries don’t necessarily reflect that, especially if a county is large, or the major conurbation is less than entirely central, as Ipswich is, for example.

And, if a bus route isn’t commercial, and the local authority either can’t, or won’t, fund it, it will inevitably be lost.

In truth, it would possibly be sensible to reconfigure local government to reflect the Travel to Work areas, although I can see the outrage if traditional counties were, effectively, abolished. People are strangely romantic about counties, even though they have less visible presence than they once did - perhaps cricket is the last obvious theatre where counties have a meaningful and dominant place. And I admit to sharing a sense that counties are important, as much as a source of identity as anything else, although even then, some counties have a more obvious identity than others.

Another element is time. Any bus journey from Lowestoft to Ipswich would take a while, unless there’s a significant demand for an express bus to match the one that exists to Norwich. And, even if there was, the A12 is hardly an express route, unlike the A47 across Norfolk which is much improved.

So, it seems likely that trains are going to be the major mid-distance public transport option going forward, and that the bus network will continue to reduce over the coming years.

A Suffolk Circle via the Stour Valley

I had set aside today for some internal Liberal Democrat stuff but, for reasons beyond my control, it was cancelled. What to do instead on what turned out to be such a lovely day?

Well, another bus ride seemed like a good idea, as Ros was speaking in the Agriculture Bill debate and really didn’t need my presence. And, having dropped me off at Needham Market, it was time to pump some more money into the public transport sector.

I hadn’t actually ridden on a train since the original lockdown, so the short journey to Ipswich seemed like a gentle introduction, and Greater Anglia’s shiny new trains are still pretty quiet, meaning a stress-free journey. People are wearing masks for the most part, which is reassuring.

My plan was a mite high risk, with some tight connections for buses that run every two hours, but as I’m an optimist, what was the worst that could happen?

Beestons run one key bus service in Suffolk, route 91, which links Ipswich with Sudbury, via Hadleigh. It’s a pretty journey, heading west through the undulating countryside that is south Suffolk and, at the end of it, is Sudbury, a town that I quite like. Yes, the planners haven’t done it any great favours, as is often the case in Suffolk, but the core is nice and the setting equally so. You could argue that its lousy connections to London have protected it - there’s no direct train service, and the connection at Marks Tey is unreliable at best.

I had time for a gentle stroll around the town centre before possibly Suffolk’s best bus ride, the Chambers operates 236 route to Clare, via Glemsford. The upper Stour Valley is glorious at this time of year, still green and rolling, with small villages hidden away and always a new vista to enjoy. Sadly, I had a very short connection at Clare, which rewards a walk, with the castle and the country park which includes the old railway station, for I needed to get to Haverhill.

It might be harsh to suggest that Haverhill is seldom a place where people feel a need to be, unless they live there. That’s probably because it’s a town surrounded by 1950s and 1960s housing, built for an outflow of Londoners at that time. Lovely, it isn’t, although compared to some recent social housing builds, it at least has some community spirit and has aged well enough. Mind you, sunshine tends to make most things look better...

I had another very short connection at Haverhill, to a Stephensons of Essex operated route 18 bus to Saffron Walden - a very different kettle of fish. Saffron Walden is genteel, middle-class, with a town centre Waitrose and all the things that go with that. The railway station is at Audley End, so that it doesn’t get too crowded. You’d almost forget that you’re in Essex. The bus runs through Helions Bumpstead, one of those villages whose name must be made up, mustn’t it?

A snatched lunch in Saffron Walden allowed me to catch the hourly Stagecoach bus to Cambridge, following the railway line through Great Chesterton, Whittlesford and Shelford, through a series of villages that probably benefit from their proximity to Cambridge.

It was time to head for home now, meaning a rather longer train ride on a rather busier train. I did have a four-seat section to myself as far as Bury St Edmunds, where college had let out. The teenagers sitting opposite me needed a reminder to cover their noses with their masks, but did at least have sufficient thoughtfulness to adjust them when asked.

So, all in all, another nice day out, although if the passenger numbers are anything to go by, it could be “ride the bus whilst you still can”, as I increasingly wonder how they can remain economically viable.

A Rural Bus Ride in the Time of COVID-19...

We’ve heard a lot about the problems of public transport operators since the pandemic set in - very few passengers, restrictions on those who do use it, and the financial crisis that an absence of fare revenue has wrought. Out here in rural Suffolk, there aren’t that many trains, and the notion of commercial bus services is quaint, to put it mildly. Most services outside of the major towns require a subsidy from the County Council, and with local government finances ever more tightly squeezed, their future is shaky.

Ros was chairing the ALDC Annual Conference today, and suggested that I might like to go out somewhere. Trains were out, as the High Output Track Renewal was at work south of Stowmarket, so I was reliant on buses.

With COVID-19 reducing discretionary travel to negligible numbers, our already sparse network was virtually skeletal, but as we’re all being encouraged back to work, they’re all being reinstated, and so I could catch a 114 bus from Little Stonham to Eye, as long as Ros was willing to drop me at the stop - it is nearly five miles away. At Eye, for contractual reasons, it would be transformed into a route 112 bus for the short dash to Diss.

And so, bright and early, Ros dropped me at a remote bus stop (in fairness, she did make sure that the bus came), and I was off in my own elongated taxi, there being no other passenger. Stonham Aspal, Mickfield and even Debenham, a relative metropolis, came and went without sight or sound of company. Rishangles and Thornham were a blur and then, at Occold, that staple of rural buses, a little old lady with a shopping basket got on. By the time we left Eye, there were four of us. Luckily, the bus seats 49...

I didn’t have long in Diss, which wasn’t a wholly bad thing to my mind, because I had a bus to catch for Norwich. There are four or five buses a day on the direct route up the A140, but I had in mind something different.

Norfolk County Council had, pre-pandemic, decided to try an experiment, introducing a Saturday service from Diss to Norwich via East Harling, the intention being to enable the villagers living in the wedge between the A11 and the A140 to go for a day’s shopping in Norwich and leave the car at home. You get about three hours in the city, enough for some shopping and a bite of lunch. There’s only one bus in each direction, but we’re used to that out here in the sticks.

Route 37A starts off by heading west out of Diss, passing through Roydon and Bressingham before veering off through the Lophams and then on to East Harling. You’ve now travelled ten miles and are now further from Norwich than you were when the bus left Diss. You are now heading in the right direction, at least.

I was, not entirely unexpectedly, the only passenger as we left Diss, but a rather enthusiastic woman got on in Roydon, and told me how wonderful the new service was, and how she was encouraging people to use it. She was going to East Harling to meet her sister and so, when we arrived, she got off. It was just me and the driver now...

Kenninghall, Banham (for the zoo), Buckenhams Old and New, passed by without a pause, let alone a passenger, then a detour through Carleton Rode and Bunwell before reaching Tacolneston. Still nobody to share our ride. Ashwellthorpe, Wreningham and Bracon Ash were left behind us before we pulled into Mulbarton. Surely we’d pick up someone there - it’s a growing community with a decent non-league football team and a supermarket? But no, we were left to carry on in glorious isolation all the way to Norwich, where I thanked the driver for the entertainment and got off.

Yes, it had taken three and a half hours to get to Norwich, compared to the usual half hour or so on the train, but the countryside’s lovely at this time of year, and I wasn’t in a hurry. Besides, if nobody uses these services, there soon won’t be services to lose...

Ros in the Lords: Bus Services Bill (Report Stage, 2nd Day)

Ros has been a part of the Liberal Democrat Bill Team on this relatively unremarked upon piece of legislation, and was keen to make sure that the Government's proposals to allow franchising schemes for Mayoral authorities were properly monitored...

Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat)

My Lords, Amendment 28 returns to the question of an independent audit of proposals for new franchising schemes. I thank the Minister for meeting me in September to discuss this matter and for his subsequent letter. The purpose of the amendment is to provide the House with an opportunity to look again at the question of an independent audit and for the Minister to elaborate and build on the letter that he sent me.

The issue here is protecting the public against the careless use of local taxpayers’ money. I have always believed in devolution; indeed, I have long thought it was a scandal that our major cities constantly have to go cap-in-hand to government whenever they want to undertake a capital programme. But I am also a great believer in democratic accountability, and there is a real problem in mayoral models in that the very concentration of power in the hands of one individual that makes it such an attractive option to government also runs a significant risk of poor decision-making because it is untested by debates in traditional committees or through effective scrutiny.

The Public Accounts Committee published a report in July in which it said:

“There has been insufficient consideration by central government of local scrutiny arrangements, of accountability to the taxpayer and of the capacity and capability needs of local and central government as a result of devolution”.

The committee went on to talk more about its concerns about capacity issues, particularly financial and technical skills, which have been exacerbated by budget cuts. Providing a requirement for a mayor to give information that proposed new schemes, potentially worth millions of pounds, have been independently audited is an important safeguard. The auditor usually engaged by a local authority may very well have their independence compromised by their wish to hold on to the contract.

Equally importantly in terms of public confidence is that the audit should be seen to be independent. The Public Accounts Committee had this to say:

“Robust and independent scrutiny of the value for money of devolved activities is essential to safeguarding taxpayers’ money, particularly given the abolition of the Audit Commission … Currently, local auditors focus on individual bodies’ financial statements and arrangements for securing value for money, rather than assessing value for money itself”.

In his letter to me, the Minister referred to the guidance on the matter that he had agreed to develop, and I would be grateful to hear more about that today. He referred to the availability of freedom of information as a means of achieving transparency. I wonder whether he can confirm today that such freedom of information requests will not be met with commerciality exemptions. I beg to move.

The Minister, Lord Ahmed, was sympathetic, but felt that existing safeguards would be sufficient. I'm not sure that he's right, but only time will tell, as Ros then withdrew her amendment in the light of Government opposition.