Lincolnshire residents urged to have their say on ways to improve public transport

The county's residents are being urged to come forward with their ideas for how to improve Lincolnshire's transport network.

Coun Ingrid Sheard (Reform UK), deputy mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, said the exercise comes after a number of residents spoke of the challenges of using public transport in rural areas.

Spalding-based Coun Sheard, who is also a South Holland district councillor, announced the plans at a Greater Lincolnshire combined authority meeting yesterday (July 16).

Coun Sheard said: “What I’ve noticed is that people want increased frequency, particularly in the rural areas. They’re finding that the frequency of the bus services is not good enough to maintain what they need for their lifestyles.

“They also want services that are seven days a week. We have certain areas that will offer a bus service Monday to Friday that is more regular than something on a Saturday and possibly nonexistent on a Sunday.”

Coun Sheard said local transport and rural transport plans are open for people to have their say on where they would like to see improvements.

The ideas in the final plans would be funded by the combined authority and external grants.

She added: “It will mean that we can investigate, for the first time, how we can bring connectivity to areas that potentially in the past have been forgotten.

“It will lead to economic growth, connectivity and further opportunities. We’re going to listen to people, listen to the problems they’re having and bring that forward to the table and ensure that we bring them a service that is fully useful for them.”

Lincolnshire County Council leader Sean Matthews (Reform UK) said: “We have a different approach to what the former mayoral authority had. We have a different view on things and quite frankly we’re not interested in electric buses and things like that.

“We want to concentrate more on what’s best for our residents and constituents in Lincolnshire and Greater Lincolnshire. What we’ll have is more efficiency.

"A diesel bus will go a lot further than an electric bus and they’re a lot cheaper as well.”

Coun Matthews acknowledged that some parties may disagree with the Reform administration’s approach, but feels that his administration's way is the most efficient way to run public transport.

He said: “We can disagree with one another but, at the end of the day, a bus is an extremely efficient way of transporting people anyway. To argue how it’s going to be fuelled is fairly minor in the greatest scheme of things.”

Councillors said the proposal would be taken to a Westminster launch event in the autumn in an attempt to gain government support - with ideas from the public welcome before then.

Comments and suggestions can be sent to either Mayor@greaterlincolnshire-cca.gov.uk and cllri.sheard@lincolnshire.gov.uk