Cumbria County Council pays for a service that was free for 25 years! A railway lobby group has said appointing community rail officers is a waste of money.
Alan Ball, chairman of Furness Line Action Group claimed it is a “disgrace” public money should be spent to employ the officers when organisations like his perform the same function for free.Cumbria County Council has just appointed its latest community rail officer, Jim Trotman, who will oversee the Barrow to Lancaster route.
Mr Ball said: “The fact is it is a real waste of money. The government has to make a lot of cuts and yet public money is going to pay someone to do what Flag and the other rail user groups do for free.
“I think it is just a disgraceful waste of money. He has been appointed to promote the line to get more people to use trains which is what we have been doing for 25 years.”
Flag, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, meets regularly, produces a newsletter, and talks to train operators and Network Rail to lobby for improvements.
Mr Ball said he is also disappointed that Flag was not informed about the new post or introduced to Mr Trotman.
He added: “We are not going to meet with them until someone officially tells us they exist.”
Lawrence Hilland is the full-time community rail officer for the West Coast Line, from Barrow to Carlisle.
He defended the role, and said although he is employed by Cumbria County Council, most of the funding for his position comes from rail companies and from firms such as Sellafield.
He added: “I can’t respond to Flag because I don’t know a lot about them and I don’t know where they are coming from on this.”No-one at Cumbria County Council was available for comment.
First Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk/
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