Bid to ban council first-class travel halted: VOTE

A CALL to scrap first class travel for Rotherham councillors was this week derailed by the borough council’s ruling Labour group.Independent councillor Peter Thirlwall this week proposed a motion that the practice should be outlawed by the borough co
A CALL to scrap first class travel for Rotherham councillors was this week derailed by the borough council’s ruling Labour group.

Independent councillor Peter Thirlwall this week proposed a motion that the practice should be outlawed by the borough council to save taxpayers’ money.

At this week’s full council meeting, he formally called on the council “to discontinue first class rail travel for councillors and use the money saved to support frontline services for the people of Rotherham.”

But the Labour group voted to support an amended version of the motion, reading: “The council resolves to use the most appropriate rail travel to London.”

 

Cllr Thirlwall had earlier asked his Labour rivals: “Which one of you would travel first class if you had to pay for it out of your pockets?

“If you have got work to do on the train I suggest you do it before you get on.

People need to get back to the real world, you are ordinary people like the rest of us.”

Cllr Ken Wyatt, the council’s Cabinet member for sustainability and innovation, hit back: “The idea that we travel first class every day is just completely wrong.

“I certainly hope that members use their railcards to cut costs, which I would commend.”

Labour councillors also insisted that sometimes travelling first class was necessary for reasons such as congestion on trains, mobility problems or the need to work during the journey.

But Swinton councillor Neil License said that a better value, cost-cutting approach was vital when it came to rail travel.

“A famous astronaut, John Glenn, once said while in a rocket: ‘This thing was definitely built by the lowest bidder,’ he said.

“It is this value approach that will save us money. We only had around five people who travelled first class in the whole of last year, but sometimes it’s impossible to reserve a seat. In fact, sometimes it's even cheaper to travel first class.”

Calls for getting value for money struck a chord with Conservative councillor Tony Mannion, who said: “If you speak about the cheapest way of going from here to London then why not get the coach?

“Cllr Licence speaks about how only five people travelled first class last year—well, that's still a lot of money that we could save, and ‘appropriate travel’ for one person may be different to someone else.”

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