Blackburn with Darwen Council is working hard to ensure, as far as it can, that the whole of the borough has a decent bus service.

One of the crucial problems, which Coun Bateson failed to mention in her recent letter was that the council has limited powers in this area.

The deregulation of the buses introduced by the Conservatives and not reversed by Labour has meant we cannot do as much as we would like.

Currently we are involved in a major study to find out the public transport needs of the borough so that we use our limited transport budget in the best way.

We made a decision to improve our Community Transport provision. This provides transport for those people includ-ing those with disabilities. We worked with service users to agree who should be eligible for this service.

Coun Bateson is incorrect, Dial a Ride and Community Wheels have not been replaced. All we have done is provide a central booking system to improve the efficiency of the service so that we can get more journeys for the same money.

In a matter of weeks, we will be computerising the route planning to make it an even better service.

The council is in constant dialogue with Transdev, but in the end they will make commercial decisions.

I welcome the introduction of the new bus service in Whalley Range. The success of this service will determine whether it will be replicated in other areas. We will certainly be encouraging Transdev to expand this service.

It is encouraging that this bus service is accessible by wheel-chair users and we need to work hard to ensure that all the borough’s bus services have this accessibility.

The local council is working hard within its limited powers. I would welcome Coun Bateson’s support in campaigning to give local authorities greater powers to plan for public transport in their areas.

David Foster, Blackburn with Darwen Council.