A The primary aim of subsidising bus services should be to meet transport needs, whilst also seeking to maximise passenger usage to meet PSA targets.

B Bus subsidy should not normally be paid to provide services above an hourly frequency, save use of possible additional funds to pump-prime services on Premium Routes.

C Carry out a pilot study into feasibility and user acceptability of using Thornhill Park & Ride as an interchange between buses, including rural feeder services.

D Ask bus operators to improve the Plus Pass scheme; set up a County ticketing company if this is felt to be unsuccessful.

E Flexibly routed bus services are expensive and have potential only in some of the rural parts of the County, such as Chipping Norton; the Chipping Norton area review should be delayed one year to allow a Rural Bus Challenge bid to be submitted and flexibly-routed services introduced in this area.

F Council subsidy funds should not be focussed on travel to work services and not be paid for services to outlying work places, but every opportunity should be taken to secure funds for such services from employers and developers.

G Staff for covert reliability monitoring should be increased from one to two and "mystery customer" surveys undertaken; usage monitoring surveys by all public transport staff should continue but be doubled by employment also of casual staff and supplemented by making payment of subsidy conditional upon receipt of usage data from operators.

H Responsibility for "services worse than hourly" should not be passed to the Rural Transport Partnership, but RTP staff should be involved in area reviews and have monthly meetings with County staff, and a community transport strategy considered.

I School and public transport should remain largely separate as now, subject to effective co-ordination; if there are outstanding issues in relation to school transport this should be the subject of a separate study.

J Encourage the District Councils to offer concessionary fares for people who are elderly or disabled;

K Subsidy contract length should remain at four years; if the law is changed to allow contracts of over five years longer contracts should be agreed subject to improved quality.

L Improve vehicle quality by abandoning the current tender price preference system for quality vehicles, and instead procuring – through SCA, PFI or other funding, also from developer contributions – buses to be owned by the County Council and made available to operators for the duration of the contract.

M Not to seek Quality Contracts (which would give the Council control of all bus services in an area) at present, but to retain them as an option in the event of continuing low tender numbers.

N All subsidy contracts should include a requirement for customer care and Disability Awareness Training for drivers, with financial penalties for non-compliance.

O The impact of the moving of decisions on Area Reviews to be decided by just two Members of the Transport Implementation Committee should be carefully monitored by local Members and reviewed in 6 months by the Environment Scrutiny Committee.

P Supplement existing procedures for assessing value for money of subsidised services by a simple population-based assessment of needs; also use subsidy per passenger-kilometre rather than per passenger-journey.

Q The potential of vehicles currently used on special needs schools transport and Social Services transport to be used during weekday off peak periods for subsidised bus services should be examined.

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