Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): I live
near an Asda store. Many of the people who work there, who are
friends of mine, would like to use the local bus services to get to
work, but the timetables do not work. Equally, I have people living
in Caithness who are disabled, who would like to use the buses to
Inverness more, but the disabled facilities are not what they
should be. I have made representations to the Scottish Government
and to the bus company, Stagecoach, but...Request free trial
(Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): I live near
an Asda store. Many of the people who work there, who are friends
of mine, would like to use the local bus services to get to work,
but the timetables do not work. Equally, I have people living in
Caithness who are disabled, who would like to use the buses to
Inverness more, but the disabled facilities are not what they
should be. I have made representations to the Scottish Government
and to the bus company, Stagecoach, but to no avail. I realise, of
course, that transport is devolved, but what advice can the
Secretary of State offer me to try to sort this wretched problem
out?
The Secretary of State for Transport (): The hon.
Gentleman is quite right that this is a devolved matter, but there
are Barnett consequentials, so there is quite a lot of money coming
through, particularly from the “Bus Back Better” plan. He is also
right to be concerned, as I have been, about the level of bus
services and threatened cuts across Scotland, including by First Bus in Glasgow and Stagecoach in
Stirling. I encourage him to work hard to highlight these issues
and remind the Scottish Government that they have a lot of money
for buses coming through as a result of Barnett consequentials.
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