Minutes:
The Council had before it a Notice of Motion set out in the agenda papers standing in the names of Mr R C Lunn, Ms C M Stalker, Ms P Agar, Mr L C R Mallett, Mr P Denham and Mr R Udall.
The motion was moved by Mr P Denham and seconded by Mr R C Lunn who both spoke in favour of it, and Council agreed to deal with it on the day.
Those in favour of the motion made the following points:
· The bus network was a vital service for isolated residents without access to cars. Bus services made a vital contribution to the economy and climate change. The reduction in Government funding over a number of years had resulted in a patchwork service provision. Increased funding and better co-ordination was necessary and this could be achieved by applying to Government to introduce a franchising model in Worcestershire. This would allow the Council to provide a quality comprehensive service in the county. The franchising model had proved successful in London and would allow the Council to dictate the quality and standard of the service including timetables, ticketing arrangements, types of buses used and information availability. It would allow a more strategic approach focusing services where they were most needed rather than where the best commercial opportunity was
· The current bus service provision in Worcestershire was fragmented and failing. The Franchising model would provide better value for money with the Council rather than the operator receiving direct funding from the Government
· Bus services should be available to local residents to get to work and link to with train services
· The benefits of deregulation had not materialised as bus services were expensive, slow and unreliable. There was poor coverage and a lack of competition. The Council had been subsidising private bus companies whilst having little control over their actions. Jersey had introduced a franchising model which had improved services, increased customer satisfaction and reduced subsidy costs. Their approach proved that franchising model could work outside big cities and was worth pursuing with the Government
· The level of bus patronage had a significant effect on the council’s carbon footprint. There was a high level of customer dissatisfaction with the level of bus service provision. At least the bus franchising model was an attempt to solve this problem
· If bus service provision was made affordable then bus patronage would increase. Buses in Worcestershire were too expensive, too infrequent and did not take people where they wanted to go.
Those against the motion made the following points:
· It was impossible to consider that bus provision could be made available to everyone. There were very few examples where public sector provision was better than private sector provision. If service provision was poor, it was a result of low demand. The Major of London had requested a 9% increase in Council Tax to help subsidise the bus franchise model in London
· The Cabinet Member for Highways commented that the Passenger Transport Strategy included proposals for demand-responsive community transport. The budget included an extra £750k of additional funding to subsidise bus routes together with additional funding for improvements to bus infrastructure. The Council was constantly looking to improve service provision. Buses were the main and only alternative to the car. The Bus Services Act 2017 provided the option of the bus franchising model, primarily intended for mayoral authorities and predominately provided in urban areas with well-defined and viable commercial networks. No shire county had shown interest in this model and no local authority had implemented it. There were only a few services in Worcestershire that would be deemed sufficiently commercially viable to support a franchise model. The appetite for commercial operators to compete for a franchise in the county would be very low. An application for a franchising model would de-stabilise an already fragile bus operating model. To put together a case for a franchising model would be expensive with uncertain benefits for a rural county and significant disadvantages
· For a bus franchising model to be successful, it would need a high level of patronage and this was not the case in Worcestershire.
On being put to the vote, the motion was lost.