So petrol price increases have “a massive impact on Suffolk’s rural community and economy”  because people in rural areas “are simply more dependent on cars”  (as we read in the EADT last week) ?  Under the current car-hugging SCC administration this is certainly the case.

Time after time our Conservative leaders have cut local bus services, telling us that the cost of supporting them is a luxury Suffolk that cannot afford.

Travel for bus users  is not a luxury. It is the only way that people who can’t drive or can’t afford a car can get to education and employment. Investment in the bus service is an investment in the future.

At last week’s SCC budget meeting, Suffolk’s Lib Dems  proposed, costed and identified the funds  to regain rural bus services for our young, our disabled, our workless, our carless:  a modest, achievable, useful investment in Suffolk’s future. It was dismissed out of hand by Leader Mark Bee, with a wave of the hand and a flip soundbite – and voted out by the voiceless Conservative majority who play such an uncritical game of ‘ follow the Leader’

Come on. It’s hardly rocket science. Let’s break the habit of  saying we can’t afford this investment.  In this current climate, Suffolk simply can’t afford not to afford it!