CORNWALL Council’s ‘One Public Transport Project’ was criticised as being ‘pretty much irrelevant’ to Launceston, at a recent meeting of the area’s Community Network Panel.

The meeting on Thursday, September 20, was given a presentation about the project by Nick Truscott, project commissioning officer for Cornwall Council.

He explained Cornwall Council is looking to develop an integrated transport system, adding: “The aim is to provide high quality accessible integrated transport.”

His presentation started with looking at improvements to rail, including the new intercity express train replacing the 40-year-old high-speed train, but those gathered commented rail services have little relevance to the Launceston area.

Moving on to discussing bus services, Mr Truscott said: “The key principle is keeping customers at the heart of what we do,” adding that this is backed up with a customer charter all providers will sign up to.

He said the council will be looking at Westgate Street bus stops in Launceston, which he said are ‘certainly in need of improvement’.

He added that the council is standardising the bus stop type to be used on the highway, with advertising to fund the ongoing maintenance of bus shelters.

There are set to be updated vehicles on the Citybus 12 route to Bude and Plymouth, as well as improved information provision and real time passenger information (RTPI) installation.

Mr Truscott said: “We are looking to install a number of real time bus stations in Launceston later this year. The closest is in Callington bus station.”

Launceston town councillor John Harris said: “90% of what you said is pretty much irrelevant. If we were going to catch the train it would be from a Devon station. We can’t get to Bodmin from here.

“You’re telling us lots of things we could get if we lived in Truro, Newquay or elsewhere. It’s very interesting, but not going to make any difference to us.”

Mr Truscott said: “Obviously we’re keeping a close eye on plans to bring rail back to Okehampton. There is a bus service on college days down to Bodmin. Buses go down to Callywith and Truro College and are available to the public to use — but it’s pre-9.30am.”

Launceston town councillor John Conway said: “We pay our taxes just as much as the west of the county — we deserve the same amount of support. We go to Devon to pick up a train.

“The new station that’s going to be built in Okehampton is really useful for this part of Cornwall. It’s going to make getting on the train really a lot easier. Okehampton — yes we need Cornwall’s support for a station in Okehampton.”

On buses, Cllr Conway added a local service doesn’t serve ‘the biggest garden centre in Cornwall at Homeleigh’, but turns left 75 yards before it. He added: “We’ve got 100 people working there, a whacking great car park, but the bus does not go there. Please look at funding transport where people want it.”

Mr Truscott said remaining spare minutes on that particular service were taken up when the bus started serving Stourscombe. He said including Homeleigh in the current timetable would mean a change of timetable every hour, which he said ‘makes the service much less attractive’.

Cllr Conway added: “What you are saying is as soon as you get to the border, it doesn’t matter — thanks very much for that.”

An owner of a pre-school said many of the families they accommodate travel from Kensey Valley Meadow, adding: “There’s not one bus that goes anywhere through that estate. These are families who need a bus service.”

Mr Truscott said he would feed that back to the council.

His colleague Emily Dunford, team lead — passenger transport planning and contract management, explained the local authority is working with local parish councils to bring bus shelters back into council control. She said: “Who wants to stand in a bus shelter that’s dingy with graffiti everywhere? We want to make it more appealing.”

Ms Dunford said the council has a grant fund for bus shelters, and it is open to hearing about areas members of the public feel need bus shelters.