A LEADING highways officer at Somerset County Council has called for 'massive investment' to be ploughed into public transport to ease the traffic congestion problems in Yeovil.

Principal transport planner Mike Bellamy told the full meeting of Yeovil Town Council on Tuesday that the powers that be need to 'think big' on their traffic plans and make buses the main choice for people to use.

And he intimated that after several years of money being ploughed into education and social services, perhaps now was the time to concentrate heavily on improving public transport.

"The politicians should put more into public transport," he said. "The alternative is a hike in Council Taxes which are not political vote winners. It might be wishful thinking, but we need to think big."

Councillors have been asked for their views on a county council led initiative to develop a 'passenger transport strategy for Somerset' and when asked Mr Bellamy left them in no doubt that his main drive towards would be better bus services.

"I feel we need to have massive investment in public transport," he said. "Many people would be willing to use public transport if it was pitched at the right price and available.

"We need to have real time information about bus times and assurances that they will arrive on time and keep to the timetable."

Mr Bellamy, who travelled to Yeovil from Taunton for the meeting on a bus, said more 'direct routes' were needed to be implemented to make buses more attractive to customers.

He told councillors that his journey that evening from Taunton had taken him through Langport and Somerton.

"More direct routes are needed," he said. "And the buses need to be frequent with at least one service every 15 minutes maximum. Having people go along in the wind and the rain hanging about for a bus that is late does not promote good use of public transport.

"We need to improve the quality and that means having more bus lanes to help promote better bus use.

"We need to make public transport the first choice of the people. We need to make people want to use buses - if the choice was there and the price was right."

Mr Bellamy added that something needed to be done about public transport to try and stop the growing problem of pollution and that the use of taxis, trains and buses needed to be promoted fully.