Agenda item

The Council secures the provision of certain local bus services that are not provided by the commercial market. This Report gives the background to the process and advises the Panel of current issues.

The Public Transport Team Leader introduced this item to the Panel. He informed them that a tender process was carried out recently for contracts that expire in March 2013, with a total annual value of roughly £450k. He added that in respect of certain contracts, operators advised the Council that they would operate them on a commercial basis after March 2013, so they were not put out to tender. For the remainder, bids were received from 7 operators and the average number of bids per contract was 2.

Analysis of the tenders and consideration of the value of the contracts that would be run commercially shows that the Council would make a saving of £108k per annum. This is a reflection both of competition in the local bus market and the growth of revenue on Sunday bus services, linked to the higher level of retail activity on that day.

The tender also provides an opportunity to improve Service 12 (Bath Bus Station to Haycombe Cemetery), on which the infrastructure is being upgraded as part of the Bath Transport Package, by restoring a peak hour timetable and converting it to low-floor bus operation.

Officers have been asked to consider ways in which revenue support can be provided to maintain the current half-hourly daytime intervals on two core bus corridors:

(i)  Services 6 and 7 (Bath Bus Station to Fairfield Park and Larkhall) – there has been very strong support from the local communities for these services and patronage has grown substantially since half-hourly services were restored in October 2011.  However, the more frequent service is not commercially viable yet.

(ii)  Service 1 (Ensleigh to Combe Down) – patronage has declined as MoD staff have relocated from the sites at Ensleigh and Foxhill. If development of the sites is approved, it is likely that patronage will grow as new dwellings become occupied. A “Section 106” contribution may be sought from any developer to support the bus service at that stage but, in the meantime, a half-hourly interval is not commercially viable.

To fund the measures outlined above it would be necessary to make further savings in the bus revenue support budget, over and above the level indicated. Officers have drawn up a package of options with a total value greater than the savings needed and it will be put out to consultation.

The consultation package will identify those supported services that are not well-used, those that offer poor value for money and those for which there are reasonable alternatives on other bus or train services. Consideration will be given to the opportunities for community transport providers to expand their flexible, demand-responsive services.

It is intended to carry out the consultation between 9 November and 14 December 2012. A summary of the responses will be appended to a Report for decision by the Cabinet in February 2013. A Report will be presented to the Cabinet Member for Transport for a single-member decision in December 2012 to recommend award of many of the new contracts and thus realise the savings from those in April 2013.

The Chairman commented that she felt that the consultation document could be construed as misleading as it was quite wordy and that it did not really stress the importance of the matter. She asked if the 6 / 7 service was still part of this consultation process.

The Public Transport Team Leader replied that he was optimistic that First would eventually pick up these services.

Councillor David Martin asked if he could explain part of the report that referred to ‘community transport’.

The Public Transport Team Leader replied that three dial-a-ride services currently operate within the Council and whether consideration could be given for them to replace some services through either current or additional resources.

Councillor Roger Symonds wished to congratulate the Public Transport Team Leader and associated staff for their work on this matter. He added that main public weekday services between 8.00am – 6.00pm should be at least every 30 minutes.

The Panel RESOLVED to;

(i)  Note the report

(ii)  Request that the structure of the introduction to the consultation document and its location on the website be amended.