Cambridgeshire County Council’s bus consultation, subsidy cuts, and what next

In February 2011, the Conservative-led Cambridgeshire County Council made national news for its decision to cut 100% of bus subsidies.

This decision was made without consulting bus users or even bus operators, and was immediately followed by an application for Judicial Review (supported by the Campaign for Better Transport).  The application was withdrawn only when the council made it clear that it would conduct a retrospective consultation, which ran from September – December 2011.

In July the council lost its £5 million bid to the Local Sustainable Transport Fund on direct account of its subsidy cuts, and was instructed by Department for Transport not to include any Community Transport component in its next bid – a refusal by the transport minister to plug holes on the council’s behalf.

In August, the council was cited in the Parliamentary Select Committee’s report Bus Services after the Spending Review as the most draconian in England in its elimination of bus subsidies.

In January 2012 the council published the results of its retrospective bus consultation, which confirmed that the people who will be most affected by withdrawing bus subsidies are the disabled, the elderly and those needing to get to work. Of those affected, 37% have no other means of transport at all.  Only 3% of respondents supported the withdrawal of subsidies.

In January the council also announced proposals for continuing with the planned phased withdrawal of all bus subsidies (£2.7 million) and simultaneous investment (£1.5 million) in new transport arrangements, under a project called Cambridgeshire Future Transport. 

Cambridgeshire Future Transport and the Duxford Pilot

What Cambridgeshire Future Transport (CFT) means is vague, but in its one year of life so far (conceived as it was in the same week as the 100% bus cuts decision) it has aimed to set up profit-making mini transport franchises.  The cost of CFT so far has been £160K, covering the set-up of the ‘Local Links’ minibus brand, as of December 6^th on a pilot basis in Duxford.   Journeys can be booked through this website http://www.cambridgeshirelocal.co.uk/.

The franchise model is supposed to hinge on pooling multiple types of transport need: a home-to-school or SEN contract that has the local vehicle doing school journeys, or a health transport contract taking people to hospital or the local surgery, or a commuter shuttle to the local rail station.  At other times of the day the vehicle could be taking non-working people shopping or young people to youth club.  Problems:  1) different sized vehicles needed for these purposes 2) if vehicle too small can’t accommodate need 3) if vehicle too small can’t get enough paying passengers to create adequate income.

At Duxford, the cost of a ride to the rail station was initially set at more than the cost of parking at nearby Whittlesford station.  The NHS has not joined up with CFT and thus there is no health transport structured into the Duxford pilot.  The Special Educational Needs transport contract upon which the Duxford pilot is designed does not come into play until February.  For most of the day the Duxford pilot will not take bookings for individual journeys, only group journeys. So the pilot started with no legs to stand on.

Indeed, in the Duxford pilot’s first seven weeks, only one passenger used the pilot.  She travelled on three occasions from Sawston to Whittlesford Station.  As the route had not yet been registered, no charge could be made.

Half-a-dozen other pilot ideas in Cambridgeshire have failed to get off the ground. No serious market research or transport needs assessment has preceded any of these attempts. The next pilot is set for West Huntingdon, officially ‘end of January’ – but as of April not yet off the ground.

What to do with bus subsidies

A fundamental principle that the council’s leadership has slowly come to terms with is that in parts of the county, some level of transport subsidy is necessary.  But there are contradictions in what the council proposes to do next: the franchise pilots are to be run at nil cost to the prospective franchisee – all costs are covered by Cambridgeshire tax payers.  Building on a period of total public subsidy, the franchise model then seeks to make profitable businesses where no commercial operator has managed to do so.  Apart from anything this experiment is speculative and risky, in the face of urgent transport needs of those who will be left stranded by discontinued subsidized bus services.

Bus subsidies will be withdrawn in phases, six monthly, with the first set to be identified at March 6^th Cabinet and to be implemented September 2012.  Once subsidized services are identified for withdrawal, the council’s CFT team will ‘engage with local communities’ about their transport needs. This will be challenging – many people will want their buses retained.

Also on March 6^th, a list of subsidized bus services that are nearly commercially viable will be identified by council officers and bus operators, with a view to adjusting them, taking out the non-commercial bits and retaining the commercially viable sections of the route.  It is not clear how many currently subsidized services fall into this category but indications are that this will be a slim component of future transport provision.  Subsidized buses are regarded by the council as inappropriate and out-of-date in terms of rural transport provision.

Where do existing Community Transport providers fit in?

When the council made its bus subsidy cuts decision in February 2011, it suggested that Community Transport providers might help fill the resulting transport gaps.

Community Transport providers, which are listed on the council’s website (http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/around/communitytransport/), include organizations like Cambridge Dial-a-Ride, volunteer community car schemes like Foxton car scheme, and larger organizations like Royston and District Community Transport which coordinates both volunteer drivers with their own cars, and mini-bus transport with paid drivers, to provide lifts for people who cannot access public transport.  66% of Royston and District CT’s lifts are health-related – so journeys to Addenbrookes or the local surgery.

The Care Network helps to coordinate and develop new community car schemes.  Council support for this work is questionable: earlier this year, £50K of Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) government funding for the Care Network’s development of new community car schemes in South Cambridgeshire was held back by the County Council in its banker’s role, for diversion to a new high speed Broadband project.

The Council has invited Community Transport providers to come and talk to them about taking part in the CFT franchise endeavour, but it has not approached Community Transport providers as to what support they need to build upon the services they provide.

Community Transport providers have not yet seen any of the two £258K government grants for Community Transport which have been passed to the County council for dissemination – again in its banker’s role.   Those funds are being retained by the County Council for CFT.

Conclusion

A fundamental shortcoming of Cambridgeshire Future Transport is that it does nothing for parts of the county that have no subsidized bus services to begin with.  Bus subsidies have been removed over the years, prior to the 100% cuts decision in 2011, and rural transport provision is patchy.  CFT only deals in a systematic way with the withdrawal of remaining bus subsidies, and even within this exercise has thus far neglected to proceed in an evidence-based manner.  In no way does it take a comprehensive view of Cambridgeshire transport needs, something which is badly needed.

Postscript

In April, due to its own contractual obligations, Stagecoach announced that it could not comply with the county council’s chosen schedule for bus subsidy withdrawal and would need to withdraw the first subsidized buses three months early –  in June, rather than September 2012.  Simultaneously it announced significant changes to its commercial services county-wide, with improvements in some areas but significant reductions elsewhere. The result is that substantial new transport gaps have appeared which the county council had not anticipated.  Affected residents are now asking how the county council plans to address these.     

An independent transport campaigner has posted details of the changes: http://heretothereshop.com/blog/?p=720

PETITION:

http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/Buses

We the people of Cambridgeshire are opposed to the Conservative County Council’s decision to scrap 100% of funding for subsidised buses, which led to an application for Judicial Review.

Socially necessary bus services are vital to the whole of Cambridgeshire, especially for young people who need to access centres of employment, those with mobility issues who wish to access the wider community and its resources, and for tackling the root problem of “rural isolation”.

We also believe that the “Cambridgeshire Future Transport” project, to which half of bus funding has been transferred, is fundamentally flawed and not capable of delivering an adequate replacement for the existing public transport network, never mind the improved system that has been promised.

We call on the Conservative administration to reinstate 100% of the cuts to bus funding and to conduct a systematic review of Cambridgeshire residents’ transport needs before making any changes to it.

Further information

1. Motions and questions to Cambridgeshire County Council:

a) Call for release of community transport funding

b) Absence of comprehensive transport needs research and strategic planning

c) Lack of rural transport strategy for access to Melbourn Pippins Children’s Centre

d) Halt cuts to bus subsidies

e) Councillor allowance increase fund - use it to  fund free transport for young people

 http://susanvandeven.mycouncillor.org.uk/questions-and-motions-to-council/

2. Subsidized bus services in Melbourn County Division:

(Substantial bus services withdrawal in 2003)

The 139 bus connecting Foxton, Shepreth, Meldreth, Melbourn and Royston was withdrawn in the April 2011 subsidy cuts.

The 31 Meridien bus connecting Great Chishill and Heydon to Cambridge, which is used by students and working people, is one of the most prominent in the public consultation response. It will lose its subsidy in September 2013.

The 128 Charter Travel bus connecting Shepreth, Meldreth and Melbourn to Royston for late morning shopping and well used by pensioners will lose its subsidy in September 2014.

3. Council reports on bus subsidy cuts and Cambridgeshire Future Transport

 http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CMSWebsite/Apps/Committees/AgendaItem.aspx?agendaItemID=4839

http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CMSWebsite/Apps/Committees/AgendaItem.aspx?agendaItemID=5067

Cllr Susan van de Ven

Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson

28 February 2012

Updated 25 April 2012