Dear All,
Please see below an email sent to WECA about the bus services in Hinton Blewett and the response,
Many thanks,
Philip
——– Forwarded Message ——– Subject: RE: Social Necessity for access to education, work and shopping for Hinton Blewett Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2022 13:48:54 +0000 From: Frances Cooke
Dear Philip Edwards,
Thank you for your follow-up email.
In answer to your questions I would respond honestly and say we are currently in a time of flux. There are large changes happening in the bus industry and within the West of England at this time. As you may already be aware, in the past 2 weeks the bus operator HCT has ceased to operate their commercial and subsidised services as well as their community transport scheme. The Combined Authority is working with existing and potential new operators to minimise gaps in disruption. I sympathise with residents that are being effected by limited bus services. For those needing regular transport for medical reasons a patient transport service is available to eligible patients. More information can be found on the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board website: bnssg.icb.nhs.uk/health-and-care/health-advice-and-support/patient-transport-services/
Unfortunately the law will need to change to allow local authorities to extend the conditions for Home to School Travel provision for post 16 mainstream students that reside in the West of England. There is a Travel Policy Statement for 2021-2022 issued by Bath & North East Somerset Council which provides information on the travel options available for Post-16 students. It can be found on B&NES council’s website: beta.bathnes.gov.uk/policy-and-documents-library/post-16-travel-statement-mainstream B&NES also have a bike loan scheme (including electric bikes) that may be helpful to those without access to another form of transport.
During this time of flux, the Metro Mayor, Dan Norris is keen to carry out a listening exercise with Parish councils such as yourself. I understand he will be contacting you to meet and would appreciate your completion of a transport survey similar to the passenger survey we carried out in November last year to gather views on transport. It is through surveys such as this that we identify significant social needs within communities and work to deliver passenger transport that works to meet many people’s needs.
I understand more information will follow from the mayor’s office.
Many thanks, Frankie
*Frankie Cooke*
Senior Transport Operations Officer
*From:*Clerk Hinton Blewett PC <clerk@hintonblewettpc.co.uk> *Sent:* 15 September 2022 14:44 *To:* Frances Cooke *Subject:* Re: FW: Social Necessity for access to education, work and shopping for Hinton Blewett
Dear Frankie,
Thank you for your response. I have read parts of the delivery plan and it seems quite generalised with managment targets and aspirations, but I dont see answers to the issues and concerns raised by this community. I find the response below does not really answer the questions raised and does not really provide a useful response that the parish council can pass to local residents.
If I was to pose the question this way: If you had an elderly parent living in Hinton Blewett, who phoned you and siad they cant see any buses on the timetable and asked which bus they need to catch to get to a hospital appointments, what would be your response.
Likewise, if you had a 17 year family member in Hinton Blewett who phoned you and said they could not seem to work out how to get to school and what bus should they use to get to Chew Valley School or Norton Hill School, how would you advise them.
I think to answer the above questions, one would either need to point to suitable services, or recognise that the duty to provide necessary services is not being met.
Kind regards,
Philip
On 15/09/2022 13:33, Frances Cooke wrote:
Dear Philip Edwards
As you may be already aware, the West of England Combined Authority and North Somerset Council have published a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) in response to the National Bus Strategy. The document sets out our proposals to increase bus ridership, boost investment in buses and improve connections for residents across our area. You can find the Bus Service Improvement Plan here:https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/transport/bus-service-improvement-plan/. We have received an indicative award of £57.5 million over 3 years to deliver the BSIP but we are awaiting final confirmation from Government. The funding means that in 2023 the Combined Authority can start to introduce changes to help buses get through traffic so they run more reliably, improve the frequency of buses on well-used routes, and develop community transport to meet the needs of more rural communities.
As part of our extensive work undertaken within the BSIP we have consulted and continue to work with all the constituent Unitary Authorities in the west of England, bus operators and organisations.
I trust you will find this information useful.
Many thanks, Frankie
*Frankie Cooke*
Senior Transport Operations Officer
*From:*Clerk Hinton Blewett PC <clerk@hintonblewettpc.co.uk> <mailto:clerk@hintonblewettpc.co.uk> *Sent:* 14 September 2022 14:37 *To:* Frances Cooke *Subject:* Re: FW: Social Necessity for access to education, work and shopping for Hinton Blewett
Dear Frankie,
Thank you again for your response. I have been informed by the council that at a recent consultation event in Bishop Sutton, that the online timetable for buses was consulted to see how a local resident could get to the Bath RUH hospital, or the Bristol RVI hospital. The conclusion was that it was not possible for a local resident to get to either hospital by bus. Please can I ask if you have identified all the needs required by the 1985 transport act for rural residents in our area, what requirements you consider are missing or not being met, and what improvement you have planned.
Please may I highlight that the school bus service provided by B&NES does not meet the needs of 16 to 18 year old children, who by law are required to go to school, but by law are prevented from using the school bus service. Please can I ask how the needs of these young people are being met by public bus services to go to school.
Many thanks,
Philip
Clerk, Hinton Blewett Parish Council
On 05/09/2022 11:35, Frances Cooke wrote:
Dear Philip Edwards,
In answer to your question regarding legal duties.
Section 63 of the Transport Act 1985 said …..
*/In each non-metropolitan county of England and Wales it shall be the duty of the county council—/*
1. */to secure the provision of such public passenger transport services as the council consider it appropriate to secure to meet any public transport requirements within the county which would not in their view be met apart from any action taken by them for that purpose; /*
This duty passed to our Unitary Authorities (UAs) when they were created in 1996 (in the case of Hinton Blewett that was B&NES) and then to the Combined Authorities (CA) in 2018. Note that it is the council (or CA in our case) that determines whether there is a need to secure a service or not. We do that by reference to our adopted policies in JLTP4 and the WoE Bus Strategy.
Service 144 operated on school days only and was solely for the benefit of pupils of Chew Valley School. It did not provide transport to work, healthcare or shopping.
Hinton Blewett has bus services 754 (Mondays) and 752 (Weds) that provide travel for village residents to go shopping. They have operated for many years with financial support from B&NES initially, and now the CA.
I trust this information is useful to you.
Kind regards, Frances
*Frankie Cooke*
Senior Transport Operations Officer
*From:*Clerk Hinton Blewett PC <clerk@hintonblewettpc.co.uk> <mailto:clerk@hintonblewettpc.co.uk> *Sent:* 24 August 2022 12:43 *To:* Frances Cooke *Subject:* Re: FW: Social Necessity for access to education, work and shopping for Hinton Blewett
Dear Frances,
Thank you for your reponse. We have made some progress for school children entitled to transport with B&NES, however the social necessity for residents needing transport for work, education, healthcare, shopping has now become a major issue seeing as the commercial service has been removed. Please can I check what are the authorities legal duties to factor this under the 1985 Transport Act.
Many thanks,
Philip
On 24/08/2022 12:30, Frances Cooke wrote:
Dear Philip Edwards,
Thank you for your email regarding service 144.
As Andy has already mentioned, this was a commercial school service with just 1 outbound and 1 inbound journey a day to tie in with the school timetable. As an authority, we receive a copy of an operators intention to register or cancel a commercial service for consultation purposes, but we have no power to compel the operator to change their proposals. My understanding is that the service was used predominantly by children in the Hinton Blewit area in accordance with local authority policy as detailed on /their website/ <beta.bathnes.gov.uk/get-school-transport>//which is their nearest school.//As you may be aware, the local authority does not provide free school transport for those that have accepted a school place at a school which is not the nearest appropriate school, which may be the case for some families in Temple Cloud and Cameley. If you feel that the only available route to school is a dangerous one in terms of road safety, B&NES council may offer children free transport to their nearest appropriate school even if their home is within the statutory walking distance. More details can be found on their website <beta.bathnes.gov.uk/get-school-transport>.
As I am sure you are aware, the majority of bus services in the West of England area are operated on a commercial basis. The authority does have a limited budget to support bus services, which complement the commercial bus network that would not otherwise be provided. We refer to these services as supported or subsidised services. These services are regularly reviewed and periodically retendered. As part of this process we conduct mass surveys and consultations of both passengers and communities including parish councils. The last survey we undertook closed in November last year. Our mayor Dan Norris has also recently been conduction community meetings to understand the demand and opinions on public transport across the region.
Kind regards,
*Frankie Cooke*
Senior Transport Operations Officer
- Posted: 22nd September 2022