Smarter use of public transport funds

Release Date: 27-Mar-2009

The Council has reviewed its public transport spending to improve value for money, and to improve services for both older and disabled people. The changes, to be introduced during 2009/10, are:

Bristol’s Diamond Travel Card Holders will travel free on the city’s community transport services from 1 April.

The concessionary travel scheme already offers free travel for disabled people and people aged 60 and over. This has been available on bus services outside the weekday morning peak and on Bristol Dial-a-Ride. Now the scheme is to be extended to cover services by Bristol Community Transport, Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Transport, Lawrence Weston Community Transport and The Mede Sprint in Knowle.

Grant funding for Community Transport Services totalling £1.01m in 2009/10 has also been awarded from 1 April.

This award which is made for the full financial year, when combined with the cost of improvement to the free travel scheme, will increase the Council’s funding in real terms by £68k. The organisations to be funded are:

Bristol Community Transport (BCT)
Bristol Dial-a-Ride (BDaR)
Bristol Shopmobility
Hartcliffe & Withywood Community Partnership
Lawrence Weston Community Transport
Mede Centre (Mede Sprint)

In addition to providing free travel, the extra funding will go to:

Bristol Shopmobility to enable them to open their new Cabot Circus facility on seven days per week

Hartcliffe & Withywood Community Transport to replace other funding sources which are no longer available and to maintain their Symes Avenue service for the whole of 2009/10 (the present developer funding is only sufficient to keep the service operating until December);

The Mede Sprint to ensure they have sufficient funding to operate their services based on the Knowle Health Park without depleting reserves and thereby ensuring their long-term future.

The Easyrider Service of eight scheduled, but flexibly routed services, operated by Buglers will now run on five days per week instead of four. From 11 May.

The existing service using two vehicles operating on four days per week will be replaced by one vehicle providing a more intensive service over five days. This will mean that all existing passengers can still be accommodated, albeit some may have to travel on a different day, while reducing the operating cost in 2009/10 by £43k.

Subject to consultation, Evening, Sunday and Bank Holiday journeys on services 5 (City Centre to Downend, 7 (City Centre to Staple Hill) & 52 (City Centre to Highridge/Hengrove) are proposed for withdrawal, and a citywide evening service introduced on Bristol Dial a Ride from 13 September.

These bus services provide relatively poor value for money. Some sections of their routes duplicate other services and, on some others, parallel services are available within walking distance.

However, to maintain a weekday evening service for those passengers who would be unable to walk to the alternative services, it is proposed to extend BDaR’s operating hours. This service would be available to qualifying residents throughout the Bristol City Council area. Diamond Travel Card holders living along the sections of bus route that would be withdrawn would be sent details of how to become a member of BDaR. These changes would save £103k in 2009/10.

Together, all these changes should produce an overall saving for the council of some £78k in 2009/10.

Councillor Jon Rogers, Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainability, said: “The community transport services are an essential service to our residents. They are very well-used by older or disabled people. Extending Diamond Travel is not only a great way to make travel free for these groups. It also helps to secure the long-term future of vital community services.”

“The budget pressures I have inherited mean we must work smarter to provide a good sustainable alternative to those bus services which provide relatively poor value for money. The changes to Easyrider ensure its continued operation while saving council taxpayers’ money. The other three services, when taking account of the alternatives available, are not used enough to warrant the significant cost of supporting them – but they are used – and by people who value them. The solution seams a fair one given the difficult circumstances. If we can work hard on promotion, and ensure good take up for the Dial-a-Ride service the most vulnerable users will not be adversely affected.”

Editor’s notes:

Bristol Community Transport (BCT) provides several different services. The principal service is citywide access to low-cost minibus hire and volunteer drivers, including accessible vehicles, for charities and community groups. BCT also provides MIDAS driver training and professional support, such as vehicle leasing, to other community transport organisations. BCT also operates an accessible semi-scheduled service in Bedminster and it is on this that free travel will now be available. BCT employs 9 staff and a fleet of 27 vehicles. In 2008/09 they provided transport services for 120,659 passenger users and 373 member groups.

Bristol Dial a Ride (BDAR) provides a pre-booked citywide accessible door-to-door transport service on Monday to Friday between 0900 and 1700. The service employs 27 staff and uses 12 minibuses to serve some 17,000 registered members. In 2008/09 BDAR expects to achieve around 70,000 passenger journeys.

Bristol Shopmobility provides low cost hire of wheelchairs and electric scooters to persons visiting Broadmead and now Cabot Circus, who have a mobility difficulty on Monday to Saturday. Until recently their 1.5 staff were based in a rent-free unit in the Mall Galleries, but they have very recently relocated to a new purpose built unit on the ground floor of the Cabot Circus car park, funded by the Bristol Alliance.

Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Partnership provides a semi-schedule

community bus service linking Hartcliffe and Withywood with Bedminster, Knowle

and other shopping destinations on Mondays to Fridays. The service developed out

of a successful Urban Bus Challenge project. HWCP has three staff including a driver

and they lease their vehicle from BCT. In 2008/09 they expect to deliver around

10,000 passenger journeys for their 900 scheme members. The group also provides

a semi scheduled service linking Hartcliffe and Withywood with the Symes Avenue

retail development on Monday to Friday.

Lawrence Weston Community Transport (LWCT) provides several different services in the Lawrence Weston / Avonmouth areas. The principal one is the Link Service, an accessible semi-scheduled service providing links to Henbury and Southmead. LWCT also provides local minibus hire, after-school-club contracts with local schools, and an early morning Wheels-to-Work minibus to Avonmouth and Southmead Hospital. LWCT employs two staff, operates four accessible vehicles and expects to deliver around 20,000 passenger journeys in 2008/09.

The Mede Sprint is the community transport arm of the Mede Community and Learning Centre in Filwood. One Mede Sprint development worker is funded, while the administrative staff at the Centre, service the Mede Sprint operation at marginal cost. The project operates two vehicles to link Knowle West and Filwood with Knowle Health Park through a dial-a-ride service and to wider facilities outside these areas through a semi-scheduled demand responsive service. In the current year they expect to deliver around 9000 passenger journeys for their 1700 members.

Author: Kate Hartas 0117 922 2649

For all media enquiries relating to this press release, please contact Corporate Communications on 0117 922 2650.

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