Radio Free Brighton

Urgent Urgent Please sign the SAVE THE LEMON BUS E-PETITION BY JULY 7TH *NEW* DEADLINE

The Big Lemon is an example of a com­munity bus com­pany that does less dam­age to the envir­on­ment in its low emis­sions and in recyc­ling waste cook­ing oil for fuel. This not only provides bene­fits to the local envir­on­ment, it also provides an example for local school­chil­dren and stu­dents from across the world, of a sus­tain­able future. The Big Lemon is also an example of a real com­munity social enter­prise where they take time to really look after their pas­sen­gers, whether they are stu­dents on the way home after a heavy night, or eld­erly people going home with their shop­ping. They also sup­port local good causes with their Give Some­thing Back scheme, and work with com­munit­ies to explore ways of mov­ing to more sus­tain­able meth­ods of transport.

All this is under threat, how­ever, because of the tar­geted anti-competitive pri­cing of the lar­ger com­pet­itor. With mil­lions of pounds behind them, large bus oper­at­ors can afford to take how­ever long it takes to muscle smal­ler oper­at­ors out of the City. In order to stop this hap­pen­ing, we call upon the City Coun­cil to:

1. Ensure all bus oper­at­ors in the city com­pete in a fair and legal man­ner, and refer unfair or illegal com­pet­it­ive beha­viour to the Office of Fair Trading

2. Ensure pas­sage of inform­a­tion from the City Coun­cil to the pub­lic is unbiased and con­sist­ent for all bus operators

3. Open up the City Council’s Qual­ity Bus Part­ner­ship agree­ment to all oper­at­ors within the City

4. Take steps to estab­lish a multi-operator tick­et­ing sys­tem using new powers under the Local Trans­port Act 2008, as has been done in Oxford

5. Ensure smal­ler oper­at­ors are not at a dis­ad­vant­age when apply­ing for Coun­cil con­tracts due to the level of resources at their disposal.

Stu­dents from the Uni­ver­sit­ies have com­men­ted that they feel very much safer on the Lemon Bus late at night, than on the Brighton Bus Com­pany, buses and that war­rants consideration.

This epe­ti­tion will be received at the Envir­on­ment Cab­inet Mem­ber Meet­ing on 21 July 2011.

We are also peti­tion­ing for the invest­ig­a­tion of EDO/ITT By Brighton & Hove city council.