I have been travelling across Huntingdonshire (and the UK in general) on trains and buses - and I know it’s not an affordable and reliable alternative to driving on most routes.

We need to fix public transport. I grew up in Romania where the car was used daily in my family - including for what we call today “unnecessary trips”, such as driving 5 minutes to school when it was in walking distance. I got my driving license when I was still a teenager but for many years, as I started my life in the UK, I could not justify the cost of a car alongside paying around a third and sometimes up to half my income in private rent.

Bus deregulation, under the Tories many decades ago, means there is very little or no local control of routes. Some people still think the council operates the buses, when the reality is that, with very few exceptions, UK buses are privatised and often run by large companies making profit.

Public transport should serve residents, not shareholders’ interests. I will work with our Mayor to advocate for more local control for our buses, such as an enhanced partnership, or franchised model like Transport for London, and advocate for solutions to rural transport poverty, such as on-demand transport like the Ting trial.