MP and councillors urge Arriva to reverse Ince Blundell bus decision

Ince Blundell councillors met with management from Arriva Merseyside to describe the impact that changes to the 47 service will have on residents.

Arriva recently announced plans to stop the 47 Crossens to Liverpool service from travelling through Ince Blundell village. The 47 currently diverts off the A565 through the village, taking around four minutes to do so before returning to the A565. Arriva management blamed reliability for their decision to amend the route, saying they needed to cut the Ince Blundell diversion to save time on the journey.

Representatives from Ince Blundell parish council gave emotive accounts of how the route change will devastate the lives of some people living in the village. The nearest alternative bus stop is 1.2km away down the busy A565 which has a pavement on just one side. This means whether residents are travelling north or south they would have to cross the A565. There is no pedestrian crossing at the stop.

Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson wrote to Arriva CEO Manfred Rudhart to describe the impact the decision will have on constituents. He asked Mr Rudhart to outline what alternatives had been considered including offering a less frequent service. The current service runs every 20 minutes.

Labour councillor Nina Killen, whose ward includes Ince Blundell, attended the meeting with Arriva to ask what assessment had been made of the impact the change will have.

Cllr Killen said: “They told me they had not considered the impact as they only consider the business case. Arriva are a company run for profit for the benefit of shareholders not the public. They decide the route, they decide the frequency. We as councillors, and Merseytravel, can only appeal to their better nature.

“Representatives from Ince Blundell parish council made brilliantly passionate representations regarding how this will impact on individuals. Children, the elderly and disabled people who need this bus to access school, college. health services and the shops.

“If Arriva go ahead with this decison they know it will be left to Merseytravel to pick up the pieces and try to provide a publicly subsidised bus service instead. But Merseytravel has lost more than £5m in funding due to the austerity imposed by this Conservative government and the Lib Dem coalition before it. They are stretched to the limit and the most isolated residents are the ones who lose out.”

Mr Esterson added: “This shows how the private sector can fail to deliver. Deregulating buses – allowing private companies to run whatever routes they want whenever they want – and taking the bus service away from public control was meant to deliver a more efficient service that could respond to public demand. But what it has meant is that bus companies are more than happy to hammer the profitable routes leaving the public – Merseytravel – to pick up the cost of non-profitable routes.

“The Bus Services Act allows for organisations like the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to take bus services back into public control, which means Merseytravel would be able to run the profitable routes as well as the non-profitable, and plough the proceeds of the busiest routes back into providing a universal service that serves everyone wherever they live. I fully support re-regulation or franchising of buses so that everyone in my constituency can access a first class service.”