Bus fare petition can’t halt rise

PETITION: (l to r) Emma Beasley (15), Grace Beasley (15), Josh Martin (16), Andrew Beasley (13), Rob Hull (14), Jon Smith (15) handing the petition over to Councillor Matt Colledge (Chairman of GMITA), Councillor Keith Whitmore (Vice Chairman of GMITA), and Councillor Norman Critchley (Bolton member of GMITA).

Former Oldham council leader David Jones failed to reopen the debate into a massive bus fare increase as teenagers took their protest to the top.

Youngsters arranged to present their 600-name petition to transport bosses on the steps of Manchester’s Town Hall.

But their bus was late and they ended up handing over inside the corridors of power instead.

The monthly meeting of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) was halted while 16-year-old Josh Martin and 15-year-old Emma Beasley gave the petition to authority chairman Councillor Matt Colledge while their friends waited outside the meeting.

The authority approved plans to increase concessionary fares from 70p to 80p from 1 April back in February, despite protests by Labour members.

The increase applies to school pupils all day and pensioners travelling before 9.30am.

Councillor Jones suggested that members should discuss the rise but Councillor Colledge ruled: “It is not open for debate.”

The teenage protest group was set up by 15-year-old Jon Smith from Bolton who was alerted to the rise by a bus driver.

He created a group on the Facebook internet site — which now has more than 6,000 members. They produced protest posters online and the members were asked to print them off and display them around Greater Manchester.

Although the chairman ruled out a debate on the increase, he agreed to be photographed with the group after the meeting.

“These youngsters are our future public transport users and we need to do everything we can to encourage that,” he said.

“Funding for concessionary fares for young people is taken from a levy on local council tax and is different from region to region as local authorities are forced to balance the needs of all parts of the community. So, we believe that the Government should provide a national scheme to ensure that young people can travel around at a fair rate.

“People aged over 60 and disabled people already benefit from a government-funded free bus travel scheme – at the very least, young passengers should be offered cheaper travel to ensure good public transport use in the future.”