Transport issues played a key role in local election results across England last week.
The Conservatives seized power for the first time in a generation in Coventry, after making much of the Labour council’s poorly-managed Poole Meadow bus terminal project. They highlighted the fact that only 23 buses an hour were using the site, compared with an expected 100, requiring soaring subsidies in 2004, and attacked its decision to demolish the terminal built in 1994 at a cost of £5.4M.
Matt Edmonds, Conservative party agent believed the ‘debacle’ cost the Labour administration in the end. He said: ‘We campaigned on a pledge to reopen Poole Meadow. When Labour closed the terminal, people here said, “You are joking.”’ The former Labour stronghold was captured by the Conservatives for the first time since 1978.
In the London borough of Islington, the Liberal Democrats lost 12 seats to Labour, who now have 23 councillors to the Lib Dem’s 24, which means the council has no overall control. Labour campaigned hard on a ‘parking for people, not profit’ slogan. The Islington party’s environment spokesman, ~Wally Burgess~ said: ‘The regime was arrogant about traffic control and parking, it is not a golden goose. ‘This is what we fought on and I believe it made the difference in the election.’
But, in neighbouring Camden, the Lib Dems became the biggest party after 35 years of Labour control. It proposes to give residents ‘a fair deal on parking’ by allowing parking attendants to use discretion on minor infringements – one of its five main pledges. Meanwhile, in Southend, the council’s Conservative leader was unelected for completely scrapping subsidised bus routes. Anna Waite lost because voters saw her as the ‘face behind the cuts’, according to Lib Dem councillor, ~Peter Wexham~.
He said: ‘There are many older voters here who are disgusted that they cannot take advantage of free bus travel because they live on a route considered not commercially viable.’
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