On the (No 16) bus If Mr AP Cox is correct that adjustments to the #16 bus - a vital service, but with low usage and running at a loss - will see it become too busy then this would be a positive challenge that we, as ward councillors, will raise (Council seems determined to ensure we’re NOT getting ‘on the buses’, Letters, March 6).

In the interests of balance, too, Mr Cox’s letter does not cover:

  • The council’s positive decision not to follow its consultant’s recommendation to eliminate the loop around Holly Bank
  • The increased costs faced by bus companies running (already loss-making) services
  • How the company runs this service only because the council subsidise it
  • The reality that subsidies still feel the strain faced by the council due to real-terms cuts by Conservative governments, and rising costs of expensive services.

My question to Mr Cox is: which already-reduced and subsidised bus service - or any other service relied on by people in York - would he take more money from to have confidence that there will always be spare seats on the #16?

It’s really difficult, but we have to take a city-wide view with getting the most out of every pound that we have.

Kallum Taylor, Ward councillor for Holgate (Labour), Harlow Close, Holgate