Issue - meetings

As detailed in recommendations 1-3.  Recommendations 4 and 5 to be amended to read:

(4)       For the forthcoming academic year the Council applies its current transport policies in full and addresses the historic anomalies as set out in the report;

(5)       That the cost for concessionary bus passes for 2018/19 be £300 (option 2), as per the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendation, with a review of the cost for subsequent years to be undertaken.

And an additional recommendation of:

(6)       That officers bring a further report on how to address the issue of sibling entitlement, as per the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendation.

Councillor Thomas introduced the Outcome of Public Consultation on Public Transport and School Transport Anomalies report which provided details of existing subsidised bus routes and the outcome of the bus network review consultation exercise that had been undertaken to consider those services and deliver an affordable and sustainable public transport service in the future.  The report also provided details of the proposed way forward for dealing with historical non-statutory school transport arrangements and anomalies following a report which had been submitted to an all Member workshop in November 2017.  A report had also been submitted to a special Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 12^th July.

            On the bus network review, Councillor Thomas explained that there had been a number of changes to the commercial bus network by bus operators which had impacted on communities and left potential gaps in service provision; this was not within the control of the Council.  However the Council had a statutory duty to keep the bus network under review and intervene if appropriate.

In order to deliver a more sustainable solution a fundamental review had been required.  During the consultation process four options were outlined to the public, elected Members and town and community councils.  They were:

·         Option1 – stop subsidising bus services completely;

·         Option 2 – do nothing and continue to support the existing subsidised routes in place as they were currently;

·         Option 3 – Support subsidised routes on the core bus network and implement alternative, sustainable local travel arrangements in communities not on the core network; and

·         Option 4 – Support subsidised routes on the core bus network and introduce a demand responsive service for communities not on the core network.

Elected Members and town and community councils predominantly supported option 3, with individual responses supporting option 2.  Option 3 was also the preferred option expressed by the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Under that option, local travel arrangements on the non-core network were intended to be provided by smaller minibus vehicles. Those arrangements would operate in a similar way to conventional bus services with a scheduled timetable and fixed route.  However, the scheduled minibus services may not operate to the same frequency or level of service as provided by conventional bus services.  Proposed routes had been identified for the local travel arrangements and were appended to the report.

The school transport route optimisation and re-procurement exercise was completed in September 2017.  The exercise delivered maximum benefit by ensuring the most efficient use of vehicles and delivery of the most cost effective routes and vehicle capacity for the required number of eligible passengers.  As a consequence, a number of historical non-statutory transport arrangements were identified that were over and above the current Home to School Transport Policy and presented opportunities for alternative service delivery and potential efficiency savings.  The identified anomalies were detailed in an appendix to the report along with proposals on how each issue could be dealt with in turn.

Details of the concessionary fares were outlined in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 217