Agenda item

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/164

Contact: Andrew Pau, Strategic Manager, Waste & Transport Tel: (01865) 815867

Report by Deputy Director for Environment & Economy – Commercial & Delivery (CMDE7E).

This report and the associated Annexes deals with:

(A)         Contract awards following the review of subsidised bus services in the Vale of White Horse area

(B)         Contract awards following the review of subsidised bus services in the South Oxfordshire area

(C)         Contract awards following the review of subsidised bus services elsewhere in Oxfordshire (which for technical reasons include some additional services which operate in the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire areas)

The Cabinet Member is RECOMMENDED to:

a)           make decisions on subsidy for the services described in this report on the basis of the tender prices (and the periods of time) as set out in Supplementary Exempt Annex 2;

b)           record that in the opinion of the Cabinet Member for Transport the decisions made in (a) above are 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, and;

c)           delegate authority to the Deputy Director for Environment & Economy (Commercial) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment to negotiate an appropriate level of ongoing contribution toward service 8 (Brackley – Hethe – Fringford – Stratton Audley – Bicester: Item AK) and service 90 (Lambourn – Ashbury – Swindon: Item L) with each contracting authority.

d)           delegate authority to the Deputy Director for Environment & Economy (Commercial) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment to award contracts relating to the items below which are subject to a delayed competitive tendering exercise.  Where the contracts being awarded are substantially different to those laid out in Annex 2 local County Council Members will also be consulted.

ITEMC: Service 38

ITEM D: Services 40, 41, 42, 44 and 218

ITEM G: Service 63

ITEM J: Services 67/67A/67B

ITEM M: Services 94/95

ITEM Q: Service X47

ITEM U: Services 97/114/135

ITEM W: Service 134

ITEM Y: Services 120, 121, 123 and 124

ITEM Z: Services 125, 126 and 131

The Cabinet Member for Environment considered (CMDE7E) a review of subsidised bus services which included the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire areas and some others elsewhere in Oxfordshire, which for technical reasons included some additional services which operated in both those areas.

Eileen Langley had spoken at Item 3 in support of retention of Service 4.  There had been overwhelming support for the service including a petition and any reduction in service levels would seriously disadvantage many people. Furthermore increased numbers at Dalton Barracks were likely to have a considerable impact on patronage and she felt the community covenant should be honoured in this regard. She recognised that the County Council needed to make savings but she felt there was scope to do that while monitoring services to local communities but if a cut in service level was inevitable then she would prefer retention of some services such as the full early services.

Councillor Hards spoke in support of the Didcot Volunteer Centre car scheme and contract V32 (Services V32). He welcomed the news regarding increased patronage of the latter but sadly accepted that the late evening and weekend services did not seem to be commercially viable but hoped that levels of service could be reviewed as the town grew.

Speaking in support of retaining peak and off-peak Witney town services (Services 213, 214 and 215) following the withdrawal of services by Go-Ride Councillor Price questioned the wisdom of offering such a contract in the first place.

Mr Darch confirmed that when the contract had been awarded Go-Ride had considered that level of service to be viable and had therefore pursued the option to operate a commercial service. That had effectively rendered the  County Council powerless to stop it even if it could have been predicted that it would fail as it did.

Responding to a question from the Cabinet Member he confirmed that prior to Go-Ride’s operation Stagecoach had operated an hourly service and so the service offered by Go-Ride had been a significant step up but the company had felt it could work. He also confirmed that there was an option to continue the current level of service but a cost.

The Cabinet Member suggested that an investment now in this service through contract W3A to Stagecoach for continuation of the existing service until June 2016 could result in increased patronage and therefore a more viable service and asked officers to take that forward subject to review at the end of that period.

Mr Darch then confirmed that it had been deemed necessary to re-run the procurement exercise for some services under review and as that exercise would not have been completed by the time of this meeting delegated authority was being sought for the award of some of the contracts under review.

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 Environment confirmed his decision as follows:

a)        Agree levels of subsidy for the services described in this report on the basis of the tender prices (and the periods of time) as set out in Supplementary Exempt Annex 2 subject to an amendment to Services 213/214/215 Witney Town to secure continuation of existing services until June 2016 pending further review at the end of that period;

b)        record that in the opinion of the Cabinet Member for Environment 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)         delegate authority to the Deputy Director for Environment & Economy (Commercial) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment to negotiate an appropriate level of ongoing contribution toward service 8 (Brackley – Hethe – Fringford – Stratton Audley – Bicester: Item AK) and service 90 (Lambourn – Ashbury – Swindon: Item L)with each contracting authority;

d)        delegate authority to the Deputy Director for Environment & Economy (Commercial) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment to award contracts relating to the items below which were subject to a delayed competitive tendering exercise and where those contracts being awarded were substantially different to those laid out in Annex 2 to the report CMDE7E then local County Council Members should also be consulted:

ITEM C: Service 38

ITEM D: Services 40, 41, 42, 44 and 218

ITEM G: Service 63

ITEM J: Services 67/67A/67B

ITEM M: Services 94/95

ITEM Q: Service X47

ITEM U: Services 97/114/135

ITEM W: Service 134

ITEM Y: Services 120, 121, 123 and 124

ITEM Z: Services 125, 126 and 131

ITEM AP: Service 36

e)      thank those operators of subsidised services which had been declared commercial from June 2016.

Signed………………………………...

Cabinet Member for Environment

Date……………………………………