WHILE welcoming support by Green councillor Gina Dowding in the regeneration committee for a new Lancaster bus station, the crucial debate was initiated by Labour councillors Bryning and Blamire. Cllr Barry, though well reported and headlined in your columns, was not at the meeting.

Labour's concern was that the Morecambe Bay Independents started talking about 'trying other alternatives.' Their leader Cllr Heath, from the chair and others rambled on about alternative 'satellite stations' for the city centre.

It was the previous Labour administration which was successful with the Capital Challenge bid to provide bus stations in Morecambe and Lancaster together with Church Street/Calkend Lane improvements for which funding can be made available (£1.5 million for Lancaster bus station and important national and regional interchange with feeder links from schools and the rural area).

Apart from undeveloped ideas about 'satellites' (where? how? when?) the MBIs were also seeking to remove expenditure on landscaping, tree planting etc. within the scheme. The bus station is an essential replacement and should be a 24-hour, safe, secure, passenger-friendly facility and crucial to any proposed integrated public transport plan for our area.

This was confirmed a few days later when the transportation committee endorsed the county's Local Transport Plan for 2000-2006. Why then were the MBIs seeking to throw a spanner in the works and show such inconsistency? Where do they stand?

Their vote was split on the issue.

Abbott Bryning

Labour group leader

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.