 |
 |
Liberal Democrats shocked at out-of-this-world business mileage figures
January 3, 2008 4:17 PM
Liberal Democrats on Suffolk County Council have today expressed shock at the huge distances being travelled by the county council. In the year 2006/2007, the county council racked up over 19 million business miles - enough to travel to the moon and back again 39 times!
Figures gained by the Liberal Democrats show that business mileage has been increasing steadily since the Tories took power in 2005. The cost of rising fuel prices has led to a £5.7 million bill per year.
These shocking figures come at a time when the Conservatives are proposing yet more cuts to bus services across the county. In the budget for next year the Conservative administration is proposing cuts of nearly £I million to bus subsidies. There are fears that this will disproportionately hit rural communities and the elderly and vulnerable who rely on these services.
Speaking about the issue Cllr Kathy Pollard, Group Leader of the Libdems on SCC, said, "This is quite an astronomical figure. We could have gone to the moon and back 39 times with the mileage the Conservative run council racked up last year alone.
When we were in power we were looking into using modern technology to cut down the need to travel such huge distances. This seems to have all but stopped under this Tory administration. Where is the innovation? This is costing Suffolk's taxpayers nearly £6 million a year and doing untold damage to the environment. The Administration needs to set strict targets to get this under control, something we did when in power.
These figures come at a time when the Administration is proposing nearly £1 million in cuts to bus services across Suffolk. Once again we see yet another aspect of Conservative policy undermining their claims to be creating the greenest county."
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats