WARRINGTON Borough Transport took legal action to ensure the town’s buses kept running during the one-day strike by public sector workers.
They secured a last minute injunction in the High Court, based on inconsistencies in the strike ballot among bus crews.
As a result, bus services ran as normal during the “Day of Action.”
But it is understood uncertainties about whether the buses would be running influenced the decision to close Warrington Market.
It was felt that without a bus service, the market would be badly hit.
As reported by warrington-worldwide yesterday, the day passed off without incident.
Cheshire Police said an estimated 700-800 people took part in a protest march through the centre of Warrington – the largest turn out in the county.
But most of those who took part dispersed after the march and a rally in Bank Park, addressed by six speakers, was attended by only 200-300.
A police spokeswoman said: ” A policing presence was visible at all the protest marches and local officers have acknowledged the peaceful and good natured approach of those engaged in the organised protest marches.
” No arrests were made and there were no incidents of disorder reported.”
The police continued to implement its business continuity planning to ensure that prioritised services continued to be delivered to the public during the strike.
6 Comments
The buses may have been running but definitely not as normal. I caught a 28A into Leigh yesterday afternoon and the driver drove past Leigh Bus Station and turned into King Street, told us to get off and set off back to Warrington empty leaving passengers to wait for the next one. I commented to the driver of the bus I returned on and he suggested that the driver was doing what his inspector had told him. Pathetic.
Who has paid for this injunction? Of course passengers will by higher fares in due course. Can we be told the number of passengers carried compared to a “normal” Wednesday and whether this heavy handed method was really worth it|?
Maybe there was a picket line at the bus station, and given the WBT injuction, it was decided not to exacerbate the situation.
“Maybe there was a picket line at the bus station,”
There was definitely no picket line at Leigh Bus Station it was either secret “striking” or one drivers bloody mindedness.
Incidentally I also noticed Leigh street cleaners working as normal.
[Can we be told the number of passengers carried compared to a “normal” Wednesday and whether this heavy handed method was really worth it?]
Does it matter???? At least WBT made some effort to keep things as normal as possible and they deserve the credit for that.
Stop nit-picking tax payer.
Yep it does seem like nit picking doesn't it SS as does it really matter how many people were on the busses (although most, like myself, probably assumed they would be ‘off’ so I guess the number of passengers would have been a lot lower). I saw the busses dropping off near college yesterday which was good but it did annoy me for a split second as there was not need to me to drop my son off after all. But not to worry! Does it matter who paid for the injunction? From what I read only about 30 out of the hundreds of local transport staff filled in their forms anyway and a even smaller amount said they would go on strike so maybe the injunction was not necessary really. The bit I do find ODD is the fact that they are saying that the market was closed as without a bus service it would be badly hit? WHY? What about all the other shoppers who don’t travel by public transport? Did the market traders agree with the closure and this supposition as with the number of others on strike seems that shopping (or should I say ‘footfall’) would have been higher yesterday due to kids being of school and parents taking the day off or striking too. I must say though… Warrington College was fully open yesterday, no picket line, and no disruption to this weeks exams and assessments so thanks to all the staff there as a lot of students and parents were worried about that. I guess they were putting their students education, exams and futures first as it was an important week. Not like me to be impressed but I was !!