Hospital buses needed

3.52.39pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 2nd Jul 2007

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Summertown and Wolvercote, Jean Fooks, has called for the County Council to reconsider its decision not to investigate the possibilities of extending bus services to the Headington hospitals. In a letter to the Oxford Times she said:

"The Conservative County Council do not seem to have embraced their party leader's support for environmental concerns. Reducing the need to travel by private car and increasing the use of public transport is supposed to be County Council policy.

"But faced with a simple request that they discuss with the hospitals, Brookes University and Stagecoach the possibility of extending the route of the no 14 bus beyond the John Radcliffe to the Nuffield, Warneford and Churchill hospitals, serving Brookes Gipsy Lane campus as well, they simply refuse to listen. Not one of the Tories on the County Council supported my motion that this be investigated.

"Such an extension is badly needed. Since the closure of the Radcliffe Infirmary, many services have been moved to the Churchill, to which the bus service is inadequate or non-existent. Anyone wanting to get to the further hospitals from north Oxford, or indeed the north of the county, has either to drive or be driven, or take a taxi. Parking is restricted at the hospitals if the patient, visitor or staff member even has a car available.

"The new service 700 , from Water Eaton Park and Ride site to the JR, is proving very popular - how much more popular it would be if it itself went beyond, or at least its passengers could transfer, at the same bus stop, to an extended service 14 bus.

"Such a bus service would also reinstate the service along Headley Way, lost when the no.10 changed to its new route through the hospital site and much missed by the elderly residents there.

"Can we hope for a reconsideration of this request, now that Keith Mitchell has publicly supported the County's Future First initiative to reduce its carbon footprint?"