A DATE for a decision on City of York Council’s proposed changes to bus services in York has been moved back, in what opposition councillors have called a ‘u-turn’.

City of York Council’s Executive will be asked to authorise the future of some York bus services on February 20, instead of January 25.

As reported in The Press, proposed service changes to some bus routes were published by the council on December 21 last year, as part of a survey which invited bus users to have their say.

On the same day as the closing of the survey (January 17) final recommendations were scheduled to be published in a report, which was to be put before the council’s Executive for approval on January 25.

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Lib Dem councillors in York, who were also critical of the duration and timing of the survey, said they "welcomed a u-turn by the council’s Labour ruling group on plans to rush through changes to a number of bus routes in the city".

Councillor Stephen Fenton, Lib Dem transport spokesperson, said: “It was clearly ridiculous to publish final recommendations for important bus service changes on the same day that the consultation ended, and so I am pleased that the penny has finally dropped with the Labour administration and the decision date has been put back.

'Some residents will be unaware of the proposed changes'

“If you take out the Christmas and New Year period, in reality this has been a two-week consultation.

“For something as important to so many people as local bus services, that’s completely unacceptable.

“Lib Dem councillors and community campaigners have spread the word among local residents as best we can in recent weeks so that they can feed back by the January 17 deadline, but it’s inevitable that some residents will be unaware of the proposed changes that will have an impact on them.”

Changes to services that are being proposed include the Number 11 service decreasing from once every 50 minutes to once an hour, Service 19 halving in a morning from once every 30 minutes to hourly and services 16 and 24 decreasing from every 45 minutes to hourly.

Executive member for transport, Councillor Pete Kilbane said: “This consultation precedes establishing a bus network that moves on from the precarious situation of the old administration where many services existed on a month-by-month basis, with no certainty for the future.

“We’ve given a reasonable amount of time in the consultation for people and organisations to present their views, and for these views to be properly considered by Executive before it reaches a decision.

“We really value consultation and hearing from the public, and I’m happy to hear from anyone at any time.

“But unlike Liberal Democrats, we don’t use it just to delay and put off making decisions.”