What does it mean in west Wales now that Labour has won a landslide? Some figures for Ceredigion show the absurdity of the First Past The Post electoral system. Labour won 63 per cent of seats in Westminster with just 34 per cent of the vote on a 60 percent turnout. In Wales Labour won 84 per cent of seats with just 37 per cent of the vote and a 56 percent turnout. Plaid’s Ben Lake won the Ceredigion-Preseli seat with 47 per cent on a 61 per cent turnout.  

We have a Plaid MP, a Plaid Senedd Member and a Plaid-controlled council. Yet most of the major decisions will be made by Labour in Cardiff and London. Under the current electoral system many people will feel that their vote, and therefore their voice, counts for nothing.  

At the hustings organised by Ceredigion Bus Action there was much agreement amongst the candidates but differences showed when the new T5 contract was discussed. Ben Lake recognised the problems but rightly stated that he has no say over Welsh legislation. It was the Labour rep who told us the real plans that have been hatched in the unaccountable corridors of Transport for Wales, plans for the T5 to go along a straight route from Aberystwyth to Cardigan as if it were a train. That’s what all T services are meant to do he declared.  

First Minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, announced in his speech on 9 July, “We will radically reshape the public transport system, bringing forward a bus Bill to enable all levels of government in Wales to work together. We can then design bus networks that allow people to access reliable, sustainable services.”  I love the sentiment but if this radical reshaping means leaving out major communities, I’d like the Labour Government to explain who in West Wales voted for that. 

One June Saturday I counted more than 20 passengers boarding in Aberporth and lots more in New Quay, hardly anyone got on along the main road. The bus was so packed when we left New Quay that many passengers were left behind, and they don’t make the formal statistics. The T5 could become the HS2 of West Wales, with speed for the few and misery for the many. 

Local people have been asking for the hourly service on Saturdays to be restored since the pandemic was declared over. There’s no Sunday or Bank Holiday service although the timetables are still up, leaving many holiday makers waiting for a ghost bus. Locals are wise to this travesty. 

So who is accountable to the bus-dependent people of Ceredigion?  Our MP is not; Labour clearly thinks it can do as it likes. Our MS, Elin Jones, receives the same nonsensical response from the Minister, Ken Skates MS, as the many passengers who have written themselves. Our local Cllr Keith Henson, who has responsibility for transport, is as frustrated as the passengers are.  

Will Aberporth and New Quay go the same way and become ghost towns like Cribyn, Cellan and other communities in Ceredigion? Cribyn used to have an hourly service from Mondays to Saturdays when it was part of the X40 route. That became a T service and Cribyn became the victim of some distant person’s ideology.  

Labour clearly recognises the problems faced by the bus industry. Louise Haigh, Transport Minister, declared last year that “poor performance of bus services often blights [sic] more lives.” And that “80 percent of people nationally who rely on buses have no other choice.” Yes, Minister, and many live in rural West Wales. Are you and the Welsh Minister listening?