THE cabinet report on July 28 on buses shows yet again that Herefordshire Council has no overall transport strategy.

It has recently won a bid which commits it to spending £11.5 million on reducing congestion by persuading people to use public transport and cycle while at the same time it is cutting buses in order to save £294,000.

Instead of a bus service, the council is pushing community transport which is a sort of volunteer ring-and-ride, but its own review shows that people don’t like it. Young people especially will not use it.

The buses are subsidised because not enough people use them, but very often it is because they go too infrequently, at the wrong times and people don’t know about them.

So it is right that money is being spent on promotion but some of the £11.5m should be spent on retaining the buses we have and improving the service.

Otherwise all promotion is pointless and a waste of precious resources.

MARK HUBBARD,

Leader, It’s Our County.