Letter to Mary Evans - Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport & Rural Affairs for Suffolk CC
15th October 2019
Dear Mary Evans – Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport & Rural Affairs for Suffolk County Council,
Autumn bus timetable changes Ipswich Buses Route 92
Ipswich Buses have altered their bus timetable to begin on 4th November. I was already dismayed by the lack of buses and times before the changes and thought it couldn’t be much worse, but these changes have proved me wrong.
I am writing to you as well as many other parties including the Prime Minister, my MP (James Cartlidge) and my County and District Councillors to inform them that my child shall not be able to fulfil his lawful obligation in attending his post 16 education due to there being no transport to get him there. I hold you, and the above mentioned parties, wholly responsible for this complete lack of foresight for the next generation of workers and tax payers.
In detail, if my son (and 2nd child 2 years following) wants to join full time education at any local college/facility from our home in Stutton, Suffolk, he has 2 directions in which to travel:
1 Ipswich
92 Bus 0728 to Ipswich 800 Park & Ride Bus 0815 Suffolk One College 0825
Thus necessitating leaving home 2 hours before lessons start at 0930 for a half hour in-car journey and arriving 1 hour before lessons start, in the middle of housing estates and roads.
Or
Walk 1 hour* to Holbrook (nearest village) 98 Bus 0813 111 P&R Bus 0842 Suffolk One College 0855
* I know this takes 1 hour as I appealed for free school transport in July 2015 (Case Ref: JC9272), losing on the basis it is safe to walk supervised, with no street lighting in some places, on a very busy road. I could not appeal on the grounds of it being unsafe for cyclists (even though my children do in fact cycle this route) due to it not being included in the appeals process as a ground as the process has not been updated since the 1940’s. This is how forward thinking we are. I know of no parent, who was pushed back into tax paying work by the tax receiving British government, who can spend 4 hours supervising their children to school and back. I bought this appeal to my MP’s attention (James Cartlidge) and he did nothing.
Or
92 Bus 0943 to Ipswich 800 P&R Bus 1013 Suffolk One College 1020 (lessons start at 0930)
2 Colchester
92 Bus 0830 to Cattawade Slip Road Walk 18 minutes to Manningtree Railway Station*
Train 0853 to Colchester P&R Bus 0859 Walk 10 mins Colchester 6th form college 0909
*This walk necessitates not only 18 minutes of whatever the weather wants to throw at you, but it is along a busy road, which needs to be crossed where it splits to 2 roads to go either under or over a bridge where a pedestrian is expected to go under the very aged bridge along with cars. The cars can only get through the bridge one at a time and so work on a priority basis. There is no footpath and it is extremely dangerous. So dangerous is fact that contractors working on the railway maintenance insisted upon being taken through it by taxis when required to do so, they refused to walk through it. But the general public is expected to walk through here at their own risk. Why oh why wouldn’t the bus take you to the train station to join up the public transport?
You will note that this new timetable for Manningtree shall also effect those commuting, from anywhere on the peninsula, on the train. It shall be arriving too late for anyone to be able to work their normal working hours. Another show of how forward thinking you are not.
In the summer of 2019 I attended a consultation on rural transport run by Suffolk on Board whereby presenters suggested more community volunteers handle the public transport needed for their areas. They also suggested inner city solutions like electric bicycles and Segways were used. The time and salaries spent on these consultations, which took place elsewhere too, was completely wasted in my view. What person, aged either 16 or 80, is going to hop onto a Segway to get themselves to a train station, college or work to share a country road with cars and many many school buses at peak times who are exceeding village speed limits (take a look at your District Council figures on speeds recorded by volunteer Speedwatch communities – Stutton being the worst local for offenders)?
At the beginning of summer this year I opened a petition for change to our rural bus services: http://chng.it/xjdXtzdm which has been ignored by those I have included in receiving timely notifications from it. I haven’t received acknowledgement from the County Council, Ipswich Buses or my MP.
I am constantly surprised by the lack of resources towards making a better, more efficient future for us all. In this day of climate crisis you, along with others, have proven those with the power to improve matters for many have taken the short term view and shall only take notice when needing to clear up the mess afterwards. Suffolk County Council should dismiss their high headed plans to become the ‘Greenest County’ when they are encouraging reliance of cars in such a way. I am ashamed of the government who offered and have honoured free bus passes for all pensioners across the land in order to boost their voting numbers, but who cannot provide transport, let alone free transport, for those who shall be expected to pay for their care and your pension in the future. You are a disgrace and are unworthy of your position. Too late for any proactive action towards turning back the clock on the climate crisis, but insistent on making things worse.
Yours disappointingly
Sarah Cooper