AN agreement sealing a partnership for better public transport has been struck in Otley.

A quality partnership document involving Otley Town Council, West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority (WYPTA) and Metro has been signed, meaning a new programme of innovations and improvements in the future of bus travel in the area.

The partnership is based on a cash commitment as well as goodwill and co-operation with the town council pledging £17,000 towards the schemes, which include:

l New Sunday morning services for churchgoers

l A service for Whiteley Croft Garth

l A new link to Menston rail station to connect with local MetroTrain services; a daytime hourly service to West Busk Lane and improvements for Newall, Weston and Wharfedale General Hospital

l A commitment for closed circuit television and an electronic InfoPoint at Otley bus station

Councillor John Eveleigh (Lab, Otley and Wharfedale), chairman of the town council community development committee, said: "This is an extremely important day for Otley and an extremely good deal that the town council and Metro have come up with and hopefully this will start to benefit people in Otley as soon as we get these buses on stream."

And fellow Otley councillor, Sue Egan, (Lab, Manor), said: "This is a wonderful day for us as a community, as a council and for myself personally. We have had discussions over the last three or four years and these discussions have become much more focused over the last year.

"I think it is a really big step forward and I think it will be a much more sensitive and responsive way of dealing with local transport needs and I would hope the new council will continue to negotiate with Metro."

Coun Mick Lyons, chairman of the WYPTA, said he felt it was important to make areas such as Otley had a properly functioning system of bus transport.

He added: "What we are doing in actual fact is entering into a partnership with the town council and the people of Otley. It is like a marriage, if you like.

"Of course it will cost money, and that money is your money. My part of the deal is that I have to go along and I have got to work with the councillors and people of Otley to make sure our services are right."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.