West Suffolk Council leaders to discuss state of rural buses in district following review

Leaders are set to discuss the state of rural business in a district following a review.

On Tuesday, members of West Suffolk's cabinet will discuss recommendations made by the authority's overview and scrutiny committee on addressing rural bus services across the district.

The meeting follows a December review in which committee members heard there was little money to fix a bus problem 40 years in the making.

Cllr Andrew Smith, who launched the review, said he hoped cabinet members could support all the recommendations with the intention they could lead to new schemes and solutions.

He added: "Almost every single document reflecting recommendations from a committee will be cautious — all we're doing now is creating the foundation for developing something.

"This was never about a short-term solution, it's about a long-term, maybe even cultural, change."

The recommendations include setting up a cross-party steering group to identify issues, looking at asking bus operators to contribute to bus station improvements, encouraging towns and parishes to bid for funding and lobbying the Government.

As it stands, neither the county council nor the district council have a statutory responsibility for public passenger transport.

However, many attending the December review pointed out both council tiers had a moral obligation to subsidise connections as much as possible so residents could access vital services such as education and health.