When local residents take an Uber rather than the bus, because it’s cheaper, something has gone catastrophically wrong with the public transport system. First Buses are cherry picking the profitable routes and ratcheting up the fares on them, leaving the local authority to find alternatives for the less profitable routes. This is profiteering from the public, not public transport! In environmentally uncertain times, the government should be doing all it can to encourage people to use mass public transport. Unfortunately, privatised public transport is having the opposite effect. London mayor, Sadiq Khan has changed this in his city, so all residents and visitors can cross London for less than we pay to get from the suburbs to the centre of Oldham. See article at: https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/05/oldham-greater-manchester-bus-riders-tire-high-fares-unreliable-service

There has been an increase in dangerous driving and speeding on Headley Road, Liphook which has resulted in a number of serious incidents on the zebra crossing near Liphook Infants and Junior School. The crossing is a key route for families travelling to school. The children, families and adults of all abilities who use this crossing perceive this to be a significant risk. Recently people have been hospitalised as a result of drivers not stopping. The community is seeing an increase in 'near misses' during school commuter times and throughout the day. The increase in dangerous driving and speeding could lead to more injuries or even fatalities. Before this happens, the community want to see this crossing improved and the policing of behaviours/speeding to be increased significantly. Whilst we appreciate that this issue is an increasing concern for all residents regarding the arterial roads of Liphook, the zebra crossing, Headley Road, is the main concern of this petition.

I think this is of vital importance because children from primary school right through to secondary school need a basic understanding and education of the dangers of a railway line after the death of the poor boy who sadly died on the railway line at Bedford Road Bootle Liverpool. This will give our children the understanding that they need to know that Merseyside and further afield operates on a third rail system which has 750v DC running through the line if you come in contact with this it will kill you instantly.

Some one will die. People have fallen down to the tracks including staff and a conductor in 2015. It's a danger stop train company's before it could be you. A simple signature could make a huge difference to safety for a child on a train. Shipley train station is one of the worst.

Hundreds of people have been isloated and stranded without the bus. Appointments, shopping and socialising is only possible with taxis and an obscure skeleton 'alternative' bus, early morning or two late afternoon that offers a limited route, which doesn't serve the whole village. The carbon footprint of villages has increased immensely and the anxiety for many is crippling. With the expansion of the local primary school and housing, the 89 bus is vital transport from Ipswich and to Needham Stowmarket also.

The UK government is pressing forward with replacing old High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps with new, solid-state LED lighting. It is clear that technology must go forward, but there are better ways of doing it. Citizens in the UK and other countries have already complained about the invasive aesthetic of bright-white LED lights, and health experts have warned about possible health risks. These lights are interfering with our biology and they WILL affect us. John O'Hagan of Public Health England wanred that high qauntities of blue light can 'cause damage to the retina', and the frequency of these lights can 'result in headaches and migraines'. This is of course, on top of the well-known fact that blue light interrupts our circadian rhythm, leading to sleep problems. However, there is already a credible solution. Many companies already offer PCA (Phosphor Converted Amber) options for road lighting that lowers the lamp colour temperature from a blinding 4000 kelvin down to a warm and comfortable range of 1800-2000-2200 kelvin. This would alleviate a great many problems with the new street lights, while maintaining the economic advantages and energy efficiency of LED technology. Companies that offer Amber LED lights include, but are not limited to: -OSRAM https://www.osram.com/corporate/ -SITECO https://www.siteco.com/en/home?catalogue=uk_en -LUMICAN http://lumican.com/darkskyseries/ -PHILIPS LUMEC https://www.signify.com/en-us/brands/lumec Consider this, and keep our streets safe and warm!

The plans are for a 20mph speed limit on the minor roads (many of which barely see a traffic speed much more than that) adjoining Hadlow Road, however there is no proposal to reduce the speed limit on Hadlow Road itself. Hadlow Road is home to several young families, elderly residents, and is used heavily by equestrians and cyclists. An extension of the 20mph limit to the length of Hadlow Road, from the (already 20mph) centre of Willaston, to the junction with the A540 would significantly reduce danger to residents (many of whom are elderly), their children, users of the Wirral Way and Hadlow Road Station, cyclists and equestrians, reduce pollution, noise, potentially traffic levels and be of benefit to Willaston as a community by encouraging more residents out. The centre of Willaston has already been successfully turned into a 20mph limit. Residents and users of Hadlow road regularly face aggression from drivers who do not slow after coming from the 50mph stretch of Hadlow Road, and have to brake hard to avoid people crossing, or even lose control on the bends. Cars have mounted pavements at speed and crashed into garden walls on several occasions. Young children cross this road every day to get to and from School. If action is not taken to reduce the speeds on Hadlow Road, it is a matter of 'when' not 'if' someone gets killed or seriously injured.

if Union Street does not back on the car free then shops will become empty apart from the big brands

Up until the 1980s buses in England were mainly run by local councils and transport authorities. Then deregulation meant that buses had to be sold off to private companies. In London Transport for London were allowed to move to a franchised system where routes, fares and standards for vehicles were set and private companies bid to run each route. Users need not care who runs their bus as their tickets will work on any bus but can expect a constant experience. However in the rest of England we have a patchwork of private operators. They get to decide what routes to run and their frequency. They set the prices and usually won't accept tickets from other operators. While in London Bus usage has gone up in the rest of the country it has declined. We want West Yorkshire Combined Authority to take control of our buses for the benefit of everyone in West Yorkshire. Creating a proper network of reliable buses built around the needs of the region. More profitable routes can be used to cross fund less profitable but vital routes. Currently bus companies can make profits from busy routes and then get additional public money to run the vital services subsidised by councils. There is now legislation to let this happen, the Bus Services Act 2017 [5] finally allows Combined Authorities to move to a franchised system like London's. Only last week Greater Manchester CA announced their plans to proceed with these new powers [6]. WYCA can't currently do this as we have no elected mayor because of a dispute with central government around how devolution should work in Yorkshire. Once this is sorted out we want WYCA (or any Yorkshire-wide Authority that replaces it) to move to a franchised system as soon as possible. However before then there is an opportunity. FirstBus and Arriva's parent companies are about to put their West Yorkshire operations up for sale. Together they represent more than 80% of bus services in West Yorkshire [4]. We are calling on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to take action to buy these operations. This will make it much easier to move to franchising in the future but will allow some of the benefits of this to be realised now. There will be a cost to this now but this money should be recouped when the buses are sold to companies biding for the franchises in the future. We are also calling for action to be taken to prevent FirstBus splitting up their operations to make them more attractive to potential buyers. This has happened in Greater Manchester and has resulted in route between areas being cut back and less profitable routes cut. This has had an immediate impact on people who rely on these services but also could make it harder for GM to implement its franchising plans. The current system of multiple operators is fragmented enough. Please share this petition if you care about our bus services; if you are a passenger, a potential passenger or see the congestion-reduction, environmental and social benefits of more people using them. References and further reading: 1 - https://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/all-news-and-blogs/west-yorkshire-combined-authority-to-consider-role-in-sale-of-bus-services/ 2 - https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/bus-services-could-be-brought-back-under-public-control-combined-authority-claims-1-9866367 3 - https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/bus-privatisation-attacked-as-transport-chief-hints-at-changes-for-first-and-arriva-bus-networks-1-9851619 4 - https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/first-bus-yorkshire-sale-could-17027301 5 - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/558349/the-bus-services-bill-an-overview.pdf 6 - https://tfgm.com/future-travel/bus-reform Image credits: Licensed under Creative Commons from Stefan Baguette. For license and image information see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Volvo_B7TL_First_West_Yorkshire.jpg

The glossy TV ads give no indication of the harm that cars do every day. Only electric cars are tolerable.

Major overcrowding on the platforms comes with serious safety concerns related to people on the tracks. Major overcrowding of people in tube carriages carries serious concerns related to both health and safety. What happens if the train develops a fault, has to stop in a tunnel for any reason or worse, there is another terrorist attack similar to 7/7? Over the years this problem has been getting worse so I feel now is the time to lobby TfL to provide more trains to accommodate the ever-growing population of London.

This text is taken directly from an article i read and could not agree more; “Hackney residents will be disproportionately affected; these bus routes offer more affordable travel for some of our borough’s poorest residents in our least connected neighbourhoods. In my own words despite the amount of money which the goverment has spent on transport supposedly the buses seem to be left on the back burner, although I use both bus and train there are a significant amount of people who solely rely on Bus services especially our senior citizens and changing them for the worst in my opinion is no help for anybody. If they can get away with this who knows what they might try to get away with in the future. I believe we can apply positive pressure and make sure we are all counted whether tube/train or bus user. These changes in the long run could see buses continually over crowded and people having longer commutes to and from home/work for e.g. I am sure there is a better solution especially with the continual rising costs to travel each and every year, we are owed a service which is effective for all and to allow it to expand not be restricted.