The minibus service has been “suspended not cut” alleged José Veléz, Deputy Mayor, at the full Town Hall meeting last night.
Answering a question by the United Left Party about the closure of the minibus service from June 4 Veléz told the meeting the service cost the Town Hall more than 20,000€ a year to run.
“Very few people used the service,” he said, “but we accept that these few people are important.”
The crisis hit Town Hall “simply can not afford to subsidise a service which brings in less than 2,000€ of revenue a year,” he added.
Veléz emphasized that the Town Hall would be interested in any proposals to run the service and would be in a position “to help” prospective operators.
The minibus had full disabled access and operated around the outskirts of Calasparra, including Valentin and the main urbanizations, and also provided a public transport link to the health centre.
Prospective operators for the service could consider running the service to the Sanctuary or simply operating on Fridays for the market and weekends, said Veléz, who added: “The minibus needs to pay its way but we are committed to reinstating the service as soon as we are able.“
The Mayor said: “We need to use some common sense. Maybe the users need to pay a little more to make the service commercially viable.”
