One for the road

This post was first uploaded on Friday 18th September but was not published for reasons we are unable to establish. The fault is more likely to lie with us than with Google. Our apologies to the contributor who provided the original info.

We’re grateful to a contributor who spotted an intriguing manoeuvre in the on-going debate about the genesis of Swansea’s much loved bendy bus and who was really responsible for its introduction.

According to someone going by the nome-de-plume of WendyFuss on the Evening Post website, it was all actually a Labour spawned initiative. Wendy writes:

Archive records at Swansea Council show that on 12th August 2003 under the then Labour Regime, a Mr Moir Lockhead, Chief Executive of First Cymru Group, parent Company of First Great Western, together with his bus and rail local regional directors met Swansea's then Labour Council Leader (now ex) Councillor Lawrence Bailey and Labour Highways and Transport Cabinet Member Councillor Mike Hedges (Morriston) where the two Labour Councillors set out their vision for improving transport. This was followed up with a presentation in April 2004 with a new bus transport concept from Morriston Hospital to the Mumbles Corridor. Hence the much maligned "Bendy Bus" was spawned by Labour under Cllrs Bailey and Hedges. It has been left to the Lib Dem / Independent Coalition to pick up the ball and run. It is becoming more successful day by day due to the present Coalition combating the malice of the now Labour opposition. The truth is in the archives - who spawned it and now who has the courage to make it work. The current Labour Lord Mayor is only a symbolic "tape cutter" taking photo shoots for a good scheme that the present Coalition has made to work smoothly as Labour moans in denial.

So there you go. Undeniable evidence - except ....

Well, besides the strange fact that there has been no mention of these so-called archives before, or since, from any source within Swansea Council or its political administration, Wendy fails to mention if this is a publicly available archive (on the web) or if it is something to which only she and a few others have official access. Her apparent anonymity and use of terminology might be a clue there.

Similarly, whilst the unverified account states that likely lads Bailey & Hedges shared their transport vision with the guys from First Cymru back in August 2003 there is no mention of what they actually said. We also find it puzzling that the well-informed Wendy does not provide more details of the presentation in April 2004; such as who made it, who was the audience and if any decision was made or even inferred at the time.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re quite willing to believe that Labour had something in mind to improve public transport but did it really involve spending millions of pounds on interminable works that would rip up Swansea’s roads for a period of years just to allow bendy-buses to traverse the city centre? After all, their own track record was one of inactivity, especially when it came to leisure centres.

Perhaps Wendy actually has uncovered evidence that managed to elude even the old pro-administration Inside Swansea blogsite professionals (Rene Kinzett and Peter Black). On the other hand it could be a scam proving once again that it's not just the buses that are bent.

For the time being however and despite efforts by the usual suspects, the official record stubbornly insists that the first policy announcements of Street-cars, Metros, ftr’s or whatever came a year after the Lib Dem-led crowd had been in and were made without any public consultation. Over to you, Wendy.