I have no wish to get involved in a political argument with Coun Terry Chivers and his comments on central government policy but it would be useful to explain Wiltshire Council’s position.

In Wiltshire around 50 per cent of the bus mileage is provided by private bus companies where they consider them commercially viable.

These commercial services do not receive any financial support from the authority and we have no control over the routes provided. The remaining services currently receive funding of more than £5.6m each year and through this 89 per cent of households have access to at least a daily weekday bus service.

Wiltshire Council works very hard to provide a good service to the population of the county and will continue to do so. Examples of this can be seen from the fact that several local services, where commercial operation has been withdrawn, have been provided with council funding in order to continue. “Local bus services often do indeed provide the only opportunity that many local people have to get out and socialise...” It is your council’s intention to keep this going wherever possible.

However, there is no room for complacency and your council is very much aware of the huge financial pressures faced by local authorities across the country, which mean that less money will be available in future to fund the services we provide, including supported bus services.

To this end Wiltshire Council is embarking on a countywide review of its strategy and funding for public transport. This will be part of a wider review of all areas of passenger transport. The outcome of all the review work will be subject to a full public consultation exercise planned to be undertaken in late 2015/early 2016.

At this early stage we are undertaking a pre-consultation exercise with key stakeholders and partners on the scope of the review and have organised a series of workshops to support this exercise.

Your council would like to hear any suggestions you may have for how to provide the best possible service within the reduced funding that will be available. Do please attend the public consultation meetings and tell us what you think.

Certainly, by all means write to central government if you fear their policies are not working, but do not blame this on your local authority. Wiltshire has been very successful in maintaining its services compared to our neighbours and that is something we would like to continue as far as funding permits.

It is somewhat disingenuous for Coun Chivers to infer that “so many village shops have been forced to close due to high business rates”. Business rates are set by central government and not under Wiltshire’s control! Coun Chivers is also fully aware of the work that this council is doing to find affordable ways of delivering services into the future; he sits on the task group that is organising the work.

Horace Prickett, Cabinet portfolio holder for passenger transport, Wiltshire Council.