I have to wait in a library all day for my kids to finish school thanks to the buses

Examples of the barriers Lancashire residents face as a result of poor public transport will be presented to political leaders at a high-profile event in Preston next year.

The Convention of the North will hear suggestions about how to improve services based on the everyday experiences of the people who use them across the county.

The testimony was captured during a recent tour of Lancashire, which saw a bus - fittingly enough - hit the road to find out what it is really like to get around for people without access to a car.

Davinia Jackson, development organiser for Lancashire Citizens, the organisation that carried out the listening exercise, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that while cost was the biggest reported concern, convenience - or the lack of it - was also a major problem for those reliant on an often fractured transport network.

In one striking case, the two issues collided to dominate the day-to-day life of a mum who uses the bus to take her young children to and from school.

“She stays in the library all day because she can't afford the return journeys and also - as [the buses] are so unreliable - by the time she gets home, she would have to set off again to pick them up,” Davinia explained.

“There was also one lad who lived about a mile-and-a-half away from his school, but there's no absolutely no bus service at all [to get him there], so he would have to walk down country lanes with no pavements.

“Then there was an older couple who live about 10 minutes’ walk from Lancaster University and they said they do everything there - using the shops, the post office and the cafes [on the campus], because it’s easier than getting into town. The university is now like their own little village.

“We have listened in areas which are not well serviced by transport networks or where the services are intermittent, which impacts on people's mental health and [them]being socially isolated.”

The bus stopped at community, educational and religious facilities during its tour and was the setting for 150 “conversations” - designed to offer a deeper insight than traditional public consultation - about the state of public transport in Lancashire.

The wider Citizens UK network is carrying out the same kind of research across the North of England and will draw the results together ahead of next February's convention - at the University of Central Lancashire - to paint a picture of public transport from a user’s perspective and make a series of requests about actions the attendees could take to address the issues raised.

The Convention of the North, which was first held in 2018, is billed as an opportunity for political, business, community and academic leaders to collaborate on a “shared agenda for the future of the North” - and create “a thriving and well-connected Northern powerhouse that will unlock the region’s full potential”.

Self-proclaimed “people’s alliance” Citizens UK was formed in 1989 with a mission to “overcome injustice.” and build a fairer society. The organisation’s Lancashire chapel was established three years ago.