Green Party candidates at this May’s local council elections have serious concerns about the way the extension of the Tees Flex service has been handled. There are many problems with public transport in our region and this is just one example of poor management and poor policy making by Conservative administrations.
The initial contract for Stagecoach to run Tees Flex ran until 24 February. A review into the service was promised, and a decision about whether to carry on with the service was scheduled to be made at a meeting of the TVCA cabinet on 17 March – a gap of three weeks. Meanwhile, Stagecoach published a notice on their website saying the service would end on 24 February.
However Ben Houchen, amazingly, stepped in just four days before the end of the contract to announce his decision to extend the service for another 18 months. Thus giving himself useful publicity, and giving the public the impression he had “saved Tees Flex” – less than three months before local elections in many parts of the region.
There are serious questions to be answered: what was the original plan to manage the end of the contract and the decision about to whether to extend it? Why the three week gap? What commercial impact has this had on Stagecoach (even on the day of the announcement, the Tees Flex website still said the service would end on 24 February)? Have stakeholders, including passengers, been meaningfully consulted? When will the results of the review be made public? Has the review been used to make improvements to the service?
We expect better – we expect our elected representatives to make sensible, timely and transparent decisions based on evidence, in the best interests of the public. Instead of a chaotic process, with announcements timed for political impact.
Yours Sincerely
Terri Hankinson, Roz Henderson, Bryony Holroyd, Richard Lawley, Kate Mammolotti, Mike McTimoney, Thomas Robinson, Anna-Maria Toms