 As reported in todays Northern Echo, Labour Councillor Nick Wallis has once again attacked our efforts to represent the people of Harrowgate Hill.
Via his blog, he accused us of "courting publicity" and blasts us for simply requesting that the council at least investigate alternatives to simply scrapping the bus routes in the ward.
Perhaps Cllr Wallis has a short memory and needs reminding that the report issued to the Labour 'Cabinet' back in April noted that five areas of the town would be adversely affected by the [apparently] commercial decision by Arriva, to change the bus routes. A recommendation was made in the report that the council should consider subsidising routes to service these affected areas. The fact that the 5 wards would be so adversely affected by Arriva?s decision seems to have escaped the hapless Cllr Wallis and indeed his colleagues, otherwise one would assume they would have addressed this issue earlier with council officers, Arriva and indeed our ever absent town Labour MP Alan Milburn.
The biggest question for us, is given that Wallis and his colleagues where aware of Arriva?s plans to change the routes, why did they simply "note" the changes and not challenge the decision. Surely that would have been the sensible, proactive action of a responsible controlling group. But as usual, as with the "free pensioner travel before 9.30am" debacle, they respond with too little too late. Only now do they decide to challenge Arriva and indeed lobby MP (Missing Person?) Alan Milburn, after a public outcry.
In the meantime, whilst the Labour group once again attempt to deflect blame for this bad decision, the residents of Harrowgate Hill and indeed the other 4 wards in the town continue to suffer. We would suggest that Cllr Wallis and his colleagues spend more time helping the residents of Darlington as opposed to trying to cover up bad decisions by attacking opposition Councillors.
Surely this is another excellent example of the "listening council", suffering from deafness.
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