Buses not solution to traffic problem

They like the convenience, comfort and reliability of travelling in their own car and I see no reason why the administration should try to restrict their use or penalise them to pay for a bus system which patently is not wanted.

The present bus operation may have been appropriate many years ago when fewer people were able to afford a car, but judging by present utilisation this is long gone.

It is time now to face up to reality that the whole idea of buses needs to be reviewed.

Buses are not the solution to traffic problems, they are part of the problem, and you cannot consider them environmentally friendly running around with no passengers.

The present buses were over-width when they were purchased (did anyone ever get to grips with how this happened?) and are quite obviously inappropriate for island roads. They are now heavily subsidised and I don't see any reason why this should be, as those without their own transport can be catered for in other ways. So the answer is to scrap the present operation in its entirety and allow private operators with smaller vehicles to be licensed for any routes they wish to bid for and at fares that will give them a return on their investment and efforts, which will give them the motivation to provide a service that people want to use – as is common practice on other islands.

The idea of making the service free is just like throwing money down the drain (something the States is pretty good at) and there will be no motivation to make it work efficiently.

Other than this, better traffic management will improve the flow of traffic, particularly at badly sited junctions and traffic lights which are not programmed properly or could easily be replaced by filters (just look what happened at the airport when the lights were replaced by a filter – the queues disappeared).

Oh and don't tell me we are doing this for the environment when the States has encouraged Aurigny to buy a plane that will substantially increase the fuel usage per passenger mile, resulting in burning tonnes more fuel a day.

As for parking, I would endorse payment for all-day parking as this subsidises businesses that have not had to make provision at their own premises, so maybe they could be allowed to buy a lease on a block of spaces for their own staff, but no charges for short stay as this will impact on the local shops and businesses.

Can we also get our politicians to stop even thinking about increasing taxes and get their heads round finding other ways to balance the books, like less spending (they have still not solved the public pension fund problem – most UK companies addressed this in the 1990s) and selling state-owned companies that it should not own or operate. There are plenty of opportunities to reduce costs but a lack of political will.

G. M. OLDROYD.