Issue - meetings

There is no report attached. There will be a presentation at the meeting on ‘Strategic Review of Transport’ – slides will be available and sent out early next week.

An officer will give a verbal update on recent bus service changes.

James Freeman of First will attend to answer any questions from the Panel.

The Chair introduced James Freeman and Andrew Sherrington – Managing Director and General Manager (Bath) of First Bus. James Freeman explained that he is glad to be at the meeting and while he does not enjoy listening to all of the issues in the public statements, it is important to hear them. He gave a presentation to the Panel which covered the following:

·  Introduction to First West of England

·  The environment in which we trade

·  Cranmore Estate

·  Route 178 Chandag

·  Route 379

·  Route 38 Keynsham

·  Route U1 Upper Oldfield Park

·  Routes 6/7 Fairfield Park and Larkhall

He also made the following points:

·  He stated that the strength of feeling and petition regarding the 379 service is noted and he has been looking at possible options with colleagues in B&NES. He stated that he hopes it might be possible to put on a couple of peak hour facilities.

·  Regarding the 38 Keynsham – there was a meeting a few weeks ago and the result of the strength of feeling at the meeting is that an experiment is taking place for the Park Estate and use of this evening service has been encouraging. Mr Freeman explained that this shows that public feeling can be responded to.

·  Regarding the U1 Upper Oldfield Park, Mr Freeman explained that he is happy to meet representatives on the site but for now the bus has to operate as per the registration.

·  Regarding the 267, Mr Freeman explained that First have been consulted as operators and that it would be his intention to run an evening service on a commercial basis on Friday and Saturdays if revenue support were to be withdrawn.

In conclusion Mr Freeman explained that in his position, he has to adjust services to the circumstances which prevail. He added that he is happy to meet with people regarding bus services.

Andy Strong – Team Manager Public Transport gave a verbal update on the recent bus service changes. He explained that the Council has agreed a limited peak hour replacement for bus service 379 funded initially by developer contributions. For this to be sustainable in the longer term, the fares revenue would need to cover the operating costs. His team had received a substantial amount of correspondence about the recent changes to First’s commercial bus services and an issue raised in virtually all of them was the lack of consultation by First with their customers and residents about their proposals. The officer reported that he is keen to work with First and other bus operators to improve the process of reviewing and changing the bus route network. On a positive note, there had been an increase in the total number of bus passenger journeys across all operators in B&NES in 2015-16 for the third successive year. The annual total was 13.4 million, up 3% from the previous year. Of that total, 28% of journeys were made by holders of concessionary passes – a slight decline probably attributable to the national increase in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102