New bus services - how Green is their Travel Plan?

The new service 88/630 being provided as part of the Green Travel Plan for the new South Glos offices will be good news for Iron Acton, because it will pick up in Iron Acton High Street where the X27 no longer goes.

However there are problems at the other end of the route. The bus will start in Chipping Sodbury, then run via Yate shops and the station. This means that a lot of the all-day parking spaces in Chipping Sodbury (proposed to be reduced under the Waitrose scheme) will be occupied by South Glos workers.

Far from getting rid of the problems of South Glos workers parking in Sodbury, this new route will perpetuate it - remember that there is only limited parking at the new S Glos offices, and the park and ride site next door was "postponed" by the Tories.

Yate Town Council suggested a different bus route that went round the estates in a figure of eight, picking up workers near home and stopping the parking problem at source. Yate TC even offered substantial money towards it.

Instead the Tory Cabinet on S Glos insisted on a cheaper direct route from Chipping Sodbury to Iron Acton, but had the cheek to ask Yate to still pick up a large part the bill for a route that didn't benefit most local people.

If S Glos is going to save as much as they calculate by combining offices, they need to go a step further with their Green Travel Plan.