Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Council currently offers a half price bus pass to disabled residents and those aged 60 and over for use from 9am on weekdays and at all times at weekends with an alternative of travel tokens to a value of £25.00. The Council is now required by Central Government to introduce a free bus travel scheme from April 2006 for eligible residents. Since August 2004 the four neighbouring Unitary Councils have operated a joint half fare concessionary scheme.

1.2 The indicative allocation from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the free travel scheme is £770,000. This grant allocation takes account of deprivation in a Council's area and Bath & North East Somerset, as a consequence of having a relatively low depravation, faces an estimated budget deficit of £105,000 per annum. This report considers how this deficit can be funded along with other issues regarding the current concessionary fares scheme as well as improving the community transport service.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 the current joint bus pass arrangements are extended and a single jointly managed off peak free travel scheme be introduced from 1st April 2006in line with Government requirements, retaining the current 9.00 am start as agreed in principle by the Executive Members of the four unitary authorities.

2.2 delegated authority be given to the Head of Transportation and Highways to agree details of and make decisions in respect of the implementation of the scheme with the Executive Member for Transport and Highways including the possibility of extending the life of the pass for 3 years.

2.3 the use of discretionary powers to allow bus pass holders to receive the current concession of half fare travel on Community Transport services such as Dial a Ride be continued.

2.4 the issuing of travel tokens be discontinued and the resulting financial resources be reallocated to:

(1) meet the projected shortfall in funding of the free bus travel scheme

(2) improve community transport such as an expanded Dial a Ride provision and provide a contribution towards the financial plan headroom savings requirements of £160,000, subject to the budget setting process in April 2006.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The provision of free off peak travel for residents over 60 and residents with disabilities becomes a statutory obligation for Unitary and District Councils from April 2006. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) indicative allocation for this Council is £770,000 per annum allocated through the annual Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services blanket grant process. The allocation formula (which is based on population) favours deprived areas, and results in an estimated deficit of a minimum of £105,000 per annum. The Council have expressed an objection to the Government over this proposed allocation. The financial analysis is shown in Appendix A.

3.2 The Council currently spends £515,000 per annum on reimbursement to bus operators for half fares forgone. Financial projections suggest that this will increase to £1,392,000 per annum with the introduction of free off peak bus travel. The estimated total expenditure for 2006/07 is £1,755,000. The budget allowance for 2006-07 is £1,650,000. This gives a projected deficit of at least £105,000 per annum. See Appendix A for detailed financial breakdown.

3.3 These figures are based on retaining the current scheme start time of 9.00 am Monday to Friday which is an enhancement to the statutory scheme which starts at 9.30am. Some bus operators have expressed concern that retaining the start time of 9.00am could result in overcrowding between 9.00 and 9.30 for which they might feel obliged to provide additional capacity. Bus operators can claim for the cost of providing this additional capacity from local authorities. At the moment neither the bus operators nor the local authorities are able to predict how much, if any, additional capacity will be needed.

3.4 Given the estimated budget deficit of £105,000 per annum and given that the Council currently spends £310,000 per annum on travel tokens, which are over and above the Council's statutory obligations, it is pertinent to consider discontinuing travel tokens in order to fund the estimated deficit. Of the four authorities only South Gloucestershire and this Council offer travel tokens. South Gloucestershire is also reviewing the continuation of travel tokens. The wider national picture is that less than 25% of authorities offer travel tokens.

3.5 The discontinuation of travel tokens would not only enable the Council to deal with the projected budget deficit but would also free up financial resources for reallocation.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The current scheme provides eligible residents a choice of either a half fare bus pass or £25 of travel tokens. Half fare bus passes are eligible for use throughout the entire Greater Bristol sub region and a number of destinations further a field, served by direct cross boundary bus routes. Half fare bus passes can also be used on Council Community Transport such as Dial a Ride services. The travel area for half fare bus passes was widened in August 2004 when the four Greater Bristol authorities formed a joint scheme.

4.2 A jointly managed free bus travel scheme for the four authorities would fit well with the wider context of the increasing joint working between the authorities in terms of the Joint Local Transport Plan and the Joint Major Scheme Bid for a network of strategic showcase bus routes. A jointly managed scheme would also lead to efficiency savings in terms of:

(1) The two First companies would only need to prepare one set of ticket machine data per month instead of four (one per authority), representing a potential saving in the region of £20,000 per annum.

(2) A single scheme for the four authorities would effectively give the authorities a louder voice in terms of negotiation with operators. A single scheme would also enable a more harmonized approach across the sub-region in terms of scheme features and benefits for residents.

(3) The co-ordination of surveys to check the use of bus passes to verify ticket machine data.

4.3 It is proposed that the costs of reimbursement to operators for 2006/07 would be split between the four authorities on a formula based on the proportion of passes in circulation issued by each authority factored by the current cost per pass holder for half fare reimbursement to operators. This approach takes into account differences between the four authorities in terms of fare levels and the extent of usage of bus passes by residents. The formula would be subject to periodic review and adjustment where necessary to make sure no authority is worse off as a result of participating in the joint scheme and that the apportionment of the reimbursement costs are fair and equitable.

4.4 Bus passes will continue to be valid on any direct cross boundary bus service starting or finishing in the sub-region. This means that bus pass holders living in this authority area will continue to be able to use their pass to travel to many destinations in Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and South Wales. Discussion will be held with Wiltshire Councils with a view to extending the scheme.

4.5 In respect of blind and partially sighted people Bristol City Council currently provides free travel without a time restriction, they are the only one of the four unitary authorities to provide this. It is intended to investigate this further with a view to endeavouring to provide this concession.

4.6 It is not proposed at this stage to consider combining bus pass issuing arrangements as this is considered to work better at a local level. However, it is proposed that a single bus pass design is agreed between the four authorities and this design be rolled out across the sub region as soon as practically possible.

4.7 The statutory obligation to provide free bus travel relates only to registered local bus services (i.e. public bus services). It does not include community transport services such as Dial a Ride. Currently the Council uses its discretionary powers to allow bus pass holders to use their half fare bus buses on Dial a Ride services. In order to consider the future options it necessary to reflect on the difference between local bus services and Dial a Ride Services. Dial a Ride services are a door to door service for the frail, elderly or people who do not have access to a local bus service. They require significant levels of Council subsidy and the fares charged are low (often lower than a local bus fare). It can be argued that because of this higher level of service, it is not unreasonable to expect residents to make a contribution (through a fare) towards the cost. To extend the free bus travel scheme to include Dial a Ride would place additional costs upon the Council, which in the context of the wider financial implications, cannot be afforded. In view of these factors it is recommended that the status quo whereby bus pass holders pay half fare on Dial a Ride services be continued beyond April 2006. This will be reconsidered once the full financial impact of the free scheme is known.

4.8 Consideration is to be given to revising the arrangements for issuing bus passes and officers will work on details with the Executive Member.

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

6 RATIONALE

6.1 The introduction of the free travel scheme from April 2006 is a statutory duty of the Council. The introduction of free bus travel for residents over 60 and people with disabilities would largely mitigate the withdrawal of Travel Tokens. This mitigation would be further enhanced by reallocating the travel token budget to high social value transport schemes, such as extending Dial a Ride across the whole authority area

7 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 An Alternative option considered to the joint free travel scheme, was four separately managed free travel schemes. Four separately managed schemes would not realize the efficiencies and saving identified in paragraph 4.2. The only potential area where savings could be made would be in retreating to the more restrictive scheme boundaries that were in effect prior to August 2004. However experience has shown that the actual level of additional travel undertaken as a result of the wider scheme boundaries has been relatively small. Therefore only very modest savings could be potentially obtained and these would need to be set against the perceived loss of scheme benefits by pass holders.

7.2 Deferral of a decision until the full financial implications of the free scheme can be assessed has been considered but all the current bus passes in circulation expire on 31st March 2006. It will therefore be necessary to re-issue bus passes in advance of this date. Officers need to know whether travel tokens will be continued or not in order to make arrangements for publicising the scheme and re-issuing bus passes.

8 CONSULTATION

8.1 Executive councillor, Other

8.2 Consultation has taken place with bus operators regarding the proposal to expand the joint scheme. Officers have only just received detailed guidance from central Government regarding the financial implications of free travel, so it has not have been possible to undertake direct consultation within the time constraints. However a Joint Overview and Scrutiny Panel carried out a review of passenger transport in 2004 including the concessionary fares scheme and consulted widely. Their recommendations included reforming the tokens scheme and the bus pass system and allocate savings to improving community transport.