Scottish Roundup, Bus Fares and Paton's Lane again ...

Further to yesterday's blog entry about the refuse collection problems in Paton's Lane (featured in today's Courier), I have had further feedback from the City Council first thing this morning :

"...the crew got access late Wednesday afternoon and the bins got emptied."

I have recently written to Stewart Stevenson MSP, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, about the about the Scottish Government’s refusal to increase the level of fuel duty rebate in Scotland in line with recent rises in fuel duty, which is leading to increased bus fares across Scotland.

Already this week we have seen an increase in the bus fares of one operator locally and the SNP Government’s failure to match the fuel duty compensatory rebate that bus operators in England are receiving is resulting in inevitable bus fare increases.

At a time when we should be encouraging greater public transport use by the public, the Scottish Government appears to be encouraging exactly the opposite and this policy inevitably results in fares increases, particularly unfair on the third of Scots who do not have access to a car.

I have asked Mr Stevenson to consider an increase in fuel duty rebate for public transport to match rises in fuel duty to protect bus services across Scotland. I am hoping Mr Stevenson will see the sense in avoiding further increases in bus fares and to encourage use of public transport.

Lastly, www.scottishroundup.co.uk ("Reporting from Scotland’s soapbox") has recently given this blog a wee mention :

"We have a blogging birthday to celebrate as well: Cllr Fraser Macpherson started putting his exploits as a LibDem Councillor in Dundee online two years ago. Councillor’s blogs usually follow one of two paths: the first is not to focus primarily on general issues, sometimes inspired by their work on the Council, sometimes not, and while we might not get a feel for how the blogging Councillor spends his or her day, we do understand a little better what makes them tick.

The second path is to focus on what they’re up to as a Councillor: where they’re going, what they’re doing, who they’re talking to. We might not find out much about the Councillor’s view on, say, the Lisbon Treaty, but it gives residents a chance to keep tabs on what their representative is doing in their name. Fraser Macpherson’s blog is a great example of the second way of doing things, and any Councillor looking to take to their keyboard could do far worse than read his site to see how he goes about it."

Click on the headline above to read more about www.scottishroundup.co.uk.