Letters: Are Northallerton bus services set up to fail?

With your lead article “Council’s ‘use it or lose it’ plea on new bus service” still in mind I would suggest that this bus service will one of those that will be lost, (D&S Times, June 21).

As I have stated before in a previous letter, from personal experience buses need to be at least hourly, ideally every 30 minutes, in order to be attractive enough to enough customers to make them pay, so the current offer of three times a day mornings only is, I would suggest, destined for failure.

Pre-pandemic the Northallerton to Bedale bus service was half hourly in both directions from 07:00 to 20:00 which I was informed by the then North Yorkshire County Council that it was not subsidised as it was self-supporting.

I note that this service is now back to being to being half hourly from which I can only assume that it is once again paying its way.

I find it extremely hard to believe that it is impossible to institute a reliable circular half hourly bus service in a growing town like Northallerton, Brompton and Romanby that once established does not pay for itself.

I often wonder how many of the councillors and their employees who are responsible for our public transport actually travel by bus.

I suspect not many for if they did might have a better understanding of how entirely inadequate our current bus service are and that the current much heralded offering is unlikely to change as it has been “set up to fail”, so that they can justify cancelling it to save money.

Robert Carter, Brompton, Northallerton.

Reliability plea

AT first I was excited to see the headline “Council’s ‘use it or lose it’ plea on new bus services”, (D&S Times, June 21).

At last some more buses. Sadly it didn’t go into details regarding these new services.

I suspect that given there will be “20 routes from the Dales to Scarborough” this will mean more tourist services rather than any meaningful improvements to existing ones.

If that is the case I wonder how they will be sustained over the winter months?

Tourists come for a short period in the year – it is locals who use buses all year round, whatever the weather.

Whilst it is nice to put on buses so people can have a day out in the Dales or by the sea during the better months, what we really need is an improvement to everyday routes and times.

It is a bit of joke when evening services are mentioned. In Leyburn there is no such thing. The last bus back from Bedale leaves there at 2pm, from Richmond it is 4.30pm and from Ripon it is 6pm.

The two services most passengers I have questioned would like to see are a regular bus running from Hawes to Northallerton each weekday, as the old post bus used to when I first moved to Leyburn, and the Saturday bus to Bedale, which North Yorkshire Council removed when it took over from Dales and District some years back.

We need daily services which work, arrive on time and stick to the timetable – something which isn’t always happening at the moment.

Sheila Simms, Leyburn.

Homes to rent

THERE has been a big drop in rental homes, despite huge demand.

That is what you get when you wage war on landlords and introduce ever more stringent rules and punishing tax changes.

For some time a number of landlords have been reducing their portfolios and many would-be private housing providers have decided it is not a sound venture.

They see it is an increasingly risky business that is no longer worth the investment or enormous effort required.

The housing crisis is set to get much worse when new legislation means landlords fear they could never get their property back and rent controls could cripple their financial existence.

Those that think the solution to the housing crisis is ever more regulation and state control are in denial. If you want people to do something you should make it easy for them, not difficult.

If government (of any colour) wishes individuals or firms to come forward to provide homes for rent they should stop making it an onerous undertaking.

Rather, they should be helping with positive legislation.

That is what happened when the 1985 Housing Act introduced Section 21 Notices.

Under these notices private landlords were given a guarantee that whatever nightmare tenant they might encounter, they could eventually regain possession of their property after an agreed term of rental had expired.

It gave confidence to investors and ushered in a massive new supply of private rentals.

Extinguishing Section 21 will have the opposite effect.

It is not going to help renters.

It is going to hurt them at a time when there needs to be more homes to rent, not less.

Matthew Laverack, York.

Help at hand

ONE morning last week around 6am I started coughing and could not get my breath.

After a while I was not improving with my breathing so pressed my life line which is good when you live on your own.

A lady answered quickly, and I managed to tell her my problem so she rang for an ambulance which came about 20 minutes later.

The North Yorkshire ambulance men were very good and put me at my ease very quickly.

They did numerous tests, and stayed with me about an hour.

Before they left they made arrangements for me to see a doctor that afternoon.

So thank you so much for our North Yorkshire ambulance service.

Margaret Sanders, Northallerton.

Apprentices

IN 1963, I was an apprentice working at the Vulcan Locomotive works, Newton-le-Willows, we were advised that in order to complete our apprenticeships, we would be transferred to the British Aircraft Corporation, at Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey.

We were issued with rail tickets, upon arrival we were taken by coach to a hotel “Bookham Grange” where we met with apprentices from the Darlington works over the following weeks we were moved out of the hotel to lodgings.

I returned to the Vulcan Foundry in 1964, where I worked until 1974 leaving at my own choice.

I have often wondered what happened to the lads from Darlington.

J. Tom Weldrick, Warrington, Cheshire.

• If anyone has information they’d like us to pass on to Mr Weldrick, please email letters@dst.co.uk.

Overlooked elderly

IT is a fact that it is the older people who turn out and vote.

The young people see their phones as the major source of information and inspiration.

Sadly the influence of paper publicity is in decline.

The young have no use for newspapers, pamphlets and leaflets. They would be more likely to be politically inspired if Taylor Swift was minded to guide her opinions.

The old and elderly like me do not seem to figure in the promises and pledges the candidates are making instead they concentrate on the “hard working families”.

Theresa May made the same mistake.

It will be a big mistake to ignore people of my generation.

Chris Greenwell, Darlington.

Party backstabbers

KEIR STARMER is leading the Labour Party into Downing Street in exactly the same situation that Boris Johnson led the Conservatives.

Once the celebrations have finished, the same will happen to Sir Keir as happened to Boris. He may be popular with the electorate but not within his own party, which is obvious to all and sundry. He will be stabbed in the back by his own party and the promises he made during the election will be rejected by the next Cabinet of his ministers. So Sir Keir, don’t throw your wig and silks away: you will need them again to make a living.

TJ Ryder, York.

Selfish world

ONCE it was normal for people to scrub the steps in front of their houses once a week.

They got two things for the price of one bit of effort.

By laying claim to their house fronts they were increasing their world but by sharing them they were improving the world as a whole.

Now, that practice is strangely laughed at.

As a consequence, everybody has a much smaller world and that is getting worse.

We are all more selfish. We spend our lives seeking contentment or happiness.

Can that be found in success?

We want greater wealth, status, frequent and distant holidays and bigger cars.

That’s success, but that success is always a failure because it never quenches our thirst for more.

But look at those who regularly scrubbed their steps.

They always achieved their goals and in a tiny way the world was better for it.

Chris Pattison, Richmond.

Missing Swallows

I HAVE lived in West Rounton for over 40 years, and each year look forward to the arrival in late spring of the Swallows and Swifts.

They are a wonderful sight, dozens and dozens of them squatting on the telephone lines, with many nesting locally, under eaves and any open but sheltered spaces.

But unfortunately, this as last year I have not seen any at all. Can any one of your readers explain why this is happening? It is such a shame to lose this glorious spectacle.

Derek Lawton, West Rounton, Northallerton.