Agenda item

Forward Plan Ref: 2010/210

Contact: John Wood, Assistant Public Transport Officer, Tel: (01865) 815802

 11.55 am

Report by Deputy Director of Environment & Economy – Highways & Transport  (CMDT12E).

The Cabinet Member for Transport considered (CMDT12E) a review of:

-                      subsidised bus services in the Wheatley, Thame and Watlington areas which would, if awarded, be effective from 5 June 2011;

-                      other bus subsidy contracts elsewhere in the county.

Councillor Wilmshurst thanked officers for listening positively to comments regarding services in his area particularly the service 40 and Chinnor-Princes Risborough link.  He hoped that some of the S106 funding from the redevelopment of the Chinnor cement works could be used to extend the 40 service to serve that redevelopment.

Councillor Turner expressed great concern regarding radical changes proposed to the 106 service.  Because of the exempt nature of the report there had been no public consultation these changes which would come as a great shock to many people who relied on the current level of service on this route to get to work and access local shopping facilities.  With regard to Service 102 he had equal concerns regarding the proposal not to continue support for the middle timed service.  The amount required to maintain current levels of service was small in comparison to the savings being realised by the Council as a result of proposals by the operator.  The restricted service would have a devastating effect and could be regarded as discriminatory.

Responding to Councillor Wilmshurst  Mr Field confirmed that with regard to the redevelopment of the Chinnor cement works it had been agreed in the short term to run a minibus service from the new estate to the line of the 40 route.  In the longer term it was hoped that the estate would be served by the 40 service itself.

Responding to Councillor Turner Mr Wood confirmed that the proposal by Thames Travel had been a commercial proposition. The 101 service did stop on the Cowley Road in the am and pm.

The Cabinet Member for Transport stressed that the County Council needed to get the best it could from the resource available and as such were looking to support essential services as a first priority. The middle service offered by the 102 had been considered as non essential and he confirmed that the proposal to withdraw that element of support had not been taken in isolation but on merit as would every similar service/operation. It should also be noted that some authorities would be cutting their whole subsidy budget.

Having regard to the arguments and options set out in the documentation before him, the representations made to him and the further considerations set out above the Cabinet Member for Transport confirmed his decisions as follows:

(a)       agree subsidy for the services described in the report CMDT12E on the basis of the tender prices (and the periods of time) as set out in Supplementary Exempt Annex 2 to that report;

(b)       record that in his opinion the decisions made in (a) above were urgent in that any delay likely to be caused by the call-in process would result in service discontinuity and in accordance with the requirements of Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17(b) those decisions should not be subject to the call in process;

(c)        thank operators for the commercial declarations made during the course of the review in respect of various contracts; 

(d)       pay Didcot Volunteer Centre £2,000.00 per annum and Cholsey Car Scheme £1,000 per annum to support the provision of these volunteer car schemes for a period of four years commencing 1 April 2011, and to ask officers to work with the organisers of each scheme and with Oxfordshire Rural Community Council to develop methods to streamline the administration of each scheme to enable provision of more robust data on the number of journeys made, journey purpose, etc.