THE council is to look at offering a free bus service in the city throughout December following a plea by councillors.
Worcester City Council will be weighing up the options of introducing subsidised bus travel later this year as another way of bringing visitors to the city centre, boosting Covid-hit businesses and giving a helping hand to residents struggling to travel because of the cost-of-living crisis.
The council has customarily offered free car parking in the busy run-up to Christmas in a bid to bring more visitors and shoppers, but the city’s Labour councillors have led a call to forgo tradition and use the subsidies to pay for free or cheaper bus travel.
Cllr Robyn Norfolk used Monday’s full council meeting at the Guidlhall to call for support in bringing a free bus service to the city throughout December including weekends and evenings.
Cllr Norfolk, who represents the St John’s ward for Labour, asked the council’s managing director to look into providing either a free or reduced cost across all of the city with a final decision to be made by councillors in the future.
She said: “As residents recover from the impact of the Covid crisis and ride yet another financial crisis caused not by their own actions but by international affairs and the capricious nature of the free market, we should be ready to step in and help residents travel into and out of the city centre during December.
“Just as there are areas within the city which do not benefit from a Sunday service into the city centre, there are residents who do not drive and cannot necessarily bare the cost of travelling into the city by taxi.”
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Cllr Jenny Barnes added: “Christmas is most important for retailers and hospitality and in fact for some retailers it’s more than 50 per cent of their yearly take so it’s really important that we support businesses who are struggling year-on-year because of Covid and now the cost-of-living crisis.
“We subsidise car parks but large numbers of residents have no viable transport and the cost of living is hitting harder and deeper.”
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