County council chiefs have been caught out on the real impact of the proposed bus cuts in one of their own policy papers.
A paper submitted by council officers to the Adult Care Panel stated, “HCC’s recent consultation on reducing bus services will have an impact on older people who are dependent on public transport accessing services, particularly in areas where older people live alone or where transport links are poor and therefore people will be at risk of being isolated from their communities’“
County councillor, Kareen Hastrick said, “Liberal Democrat councillors have been saying for the past nine months that the proposed cuts to our bus services would have a devastating impact on older people, but the Conservatives running the county council denied this.
“Now the cat is out of the bag and they have been proved to be wrong by their own officers. I urge the Conservatives to think again and drop these cuts before it is too late”.
Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats gave collected over 6,000 signatures against the proposed cuts in bus services. The petition can still be signed at http://signme.org.uk/1039 , the second consultation is open until 10 April