Touts must not be allowed back

terrorised commuters, the city is once again surrendering a potential source of revenue to people who do not deserve it.

We had been encouraged by reports that the City Council was planning to resume full control of all terminuses and ranks within a few weeks of the blitz. They had what appeared to be a sensible plan involving bus parks outside the city centre with a controlled flow of buses into the city centre to pick up commuters.

But the touts have found a way back. And the police, who are generally very good, and have the responsibility for maintaining order and forcing people to obey the law and the rules, seem to be looking the other way.

So intolerable had the criminal control of bus terminuses become that kombi drivers welcomed police presence at terminuses, itself an unheard of situation among kombi crews.

Commuters were also far happier to finally go about their business without being pushed and shoved or insulted by foul-mouthed louts.

So the council must move fast and move its people into terminuses today.
There are questions of fees and the like, but so long as the council, the police and the bus operators are all talking to each other we are confident that a lot can be sorted out quickly to retain sanity at the ranks and revenue in city coffers.

When the council abdicated its responsibilities for bus terminuses and for street parking more than a decade ago, touts moved in. They formed groups and now gangs. The council seized back the street parking, successfully.

The arguments there are whether a foreign company should or should not control EasiPark, not whether the presence of parking attendants is or is not a good thing. Every driver now agrees that things are a lot better.

The council learnt from the EasiPark criticism and was building teams of its own staff for controlling bus terminuses, rather than contracting this work out.

Doing it all at once instead of in phases, as the parking was done, will be harder, but so long as there is rapid progress in bringing everyone up to speed commuters will tolerate a modest number of teething problems in the first week or two. The alternative is totally unacceptable.

In fact, a programme of continuous improvement and continuous consultation will avoid the other problem of the EasiPark system, its lack of flexibility and the irritation normally felt with an imposed solution.

We mention, for example, that parking charges are uniform, whether you are parking next to First Street Mall or parking in a less desirable and low rent area.

The more complex problem of public transport needs to be far more of continuous work in progress as we refine systems so that commuters can get to work and get home quickly, traffic flows well, streets are not blocked and there is a fair sharing of resources between sometimes conflicting demands.

If we move from chaos controlled by criminals to a system built on enforced rules, and the police have promised to keep high pressure on enforcement until everyone actually obeys them, then we can move forward.

We do not have to be dictatorial, just all agree that we will work together to create something a lot better than what we have.

But the critical point is not to leave another vacuum for new gangs to fill. The police can hold the fort while the council moves in, but the council must play its part and move in now, today.
It has abdicated its responsibilities for far too long.