Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 May 2011 14:26:21
What are we doing to our rural communities? This morning I went to preach in a village that is now cut off from public transport on Sundays and bank holidays and has the last bus very early in the evening because the subsidised services have been cut.
I know that the level of public transport subsidy has gotten too high. So what about charging a small fare to the old people -rather than giving them totally free travel and keeping it so they can get out of their villages. The situation we have now created that means unless they can get a lift some old people, whose other halfs have gone into residential care, can no longer visit their spouses on a Sunday. This is disgusting. Particularly if one thinks back to the other week - there were so many days which fell into bank holiday or Sunday.
It's not just old people though - what about the teenagers in these communities?
Yes, there are harsh choices to be making - but what sort of civillised societies make ones like this? Rural communities and the teenagers and elderly there matter just as much as those within urban centres!