Agenda item

Chris Major gave a presentation on public and community transport. A copy of his PowerPoint slides is attached to these minutes as Appendix 1.

He said that the Council’s strategy was based on the vision that those who could travel independently would do so, and that those who cannot get the support and transport that match their needs. The Council is looking for a greater social return on the money it spends on public and community transport. The Council’s aim is to maintain current levels of public and community transport as far as possible, subject to it being needed and offering value for money. The Council works with all groups providing transport and seeks to reduce the number of vehicles going over the same routes. There is an ongoing Strategic Review of what can be provided in each area, and a report on this will be issued very shortly.

Major transport providers are only interested in key routes. The Council was lucky to be able to work with Keynsham Dial-a-Ride through Councillor Brian Simmons. There are strict legal rules preventing the Council from giving support to community groups for journeys that commercial operators wish to provide.

85% of bus services provided by the commercial operators in Bath and North East Somerset are operated on an entirely commercial basis and the Council does not get involved in them. First Group representatives had given recently given a presentation at a meeting and had made it quite clear that their first duty is to their shareholders. Commercial operators are not permitted to cross-subsidise different routes. The Council subsidises a small number of routes and parts of routes that the commercial operators regard as unprofitable. These are mostly within the network of routes established by the operators. Operators often notify changes of routes and timetables at very short notice. The Council focusses on trying to maintain daytime services important for education, employment and healthcare. The changes to bus services notified to the Council on 4 September were far more extensive than at any previous change date. The Council has agreed to supply short-term support for a number of services until a sustainable solution is found. Each bus costs about £160,000 a year to run.

Chris Gittins (Clerk, Timsbury PC) said that he was concerned about the slow downward spiral of bus services in rural areas. He had contacted First four days before the changes were implemented and was told that no revised timetables had been printed. After about 10 minutes they had found a file they could send him. He had printed this out and attached it to the bus stop. He knew someone who had lost his job because of the change and someone else who probably would as well. One bus had left the stop 5 minutes before it was scheduled to, and the bus service was only hourly.

Chris Major suggested that one solution might to encourage more car sharing and more co-ordination and harmonisation of movements of people to hospitals and other community facilities.

Cllr Tony Clarke said that for the current financial year the Council had tried to identify which bus services could be made commercial with some small changes. Subsidy reductions had in fact been relatively small. On one service that the Council had ceased supporting it had been found that each passenger was costing £12 per trip; the Council did have financial problems and had to be very careful it was not using money in a way that was not equitable. He was particularly concerned to preserve rural services. Officers had worked hard on the issues, and Informal Cabinet had met on two or three occasions and had looked at every route. The administration was determined to get as many people out of their cars as possible and to ensure that people could get to work.

He agreed that the failure of operators to provide timely advice to passengers of changes to services was a significant problem, but the Council has no control over this. The Council has a Bus Expert Improvement Panel that meets two or three times a year under the chairmanship of the London Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy, which has been successful in establishing negotiations with operators, but unfortunately legislation in place for the past thirty years prohibits any form of co-operation between bus operators as anti-competitive. However, there is a Bus Services Bill going through Parliament at the moment, which will allow cross-ticketing between operators and would give local authorities significant powers to make decisions about routes and timetables.

Judith Chubb-Whittle said that she understood that parish councils had the power to subsidise bus services. However, because of budget restrictions they were not able to do this. Cllr Warren responded that there were plans for the Chew Valley that would allow more to be done without increased subsidies. The challenge for all councils was to do more with less money. Devolution would allow for the franchising of bus services, which would give greater power to prevent operators from dropping unprofitable services.