Agenda item

To receive the report of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services on any Notices of Motion received by him (Lilac pages).

Councillors are asked to note that any Notices of Motion must be received by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services no later than noon on Tuesday, 4 September 2018.

The Council had before it a Notice of Motion set out in the agenda papers standing in the names of Prof J W Raine, Mrs F M Oborski and Mrs E B Tucker.

The motion was moved by Mrs E B Tucker and seconded by Prof J W Raine who both spoke in favour of it.

The Council agreed to deal with the motion on the day.

In the debate, the following principal points were raised:

·         An urgent cross-party scrutiny exercise was required to address public transport issues and to help officers and the Cabinet Member get the best service possible from the available funding. Particular focus should be on those residents with no alternative transport and to avoid social isolation. The scrutiny should both feed into the budget process and find longer term solutions  

·         The Council did not work collaboratively with local bus companies or understand passenger needs, had not reduced car usage, congestion and air pollution, and had not spent the available £1.8 wisely. Further cuts to services were due next week despite investment in bus shelters and dropped kerbs. Local councillors had not been informed of timetable changes until the last minute. A petition was submitted asking for the reversal of the decision to change bus services in South Worcestershire

·         The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways thanked all members who attended the meeting on 13 August with the Managing Director of First Bus in relation to timetable changes and proposals to increase future bus use. He accepted the Notice of Motion on behalf of the administration. The Council was a bus-friendly authority with buses seen as an alternative to car usage. However the Council did not have the funds to replace lost bus services. He accepted that there was no alternative for some people and the potential for social isolation, particularly for the elderly. He wanted to provide a stable foundation for buses services, planned and co-ordinated with other forms of transport including a network of community and voluntary transport. Therefore a review had already been commissioned together with a public consultation exercise. The review should take 6 months to complete. He thanked the transport team for their work in mitigating the impact of the reduction of bus services and members for submitting comments on behalf of local residents. He was concerned about the impact on officer-time of this scrutiny exercise taking place in parallel with the review

·         An important function of scrutiny was policy development therefore this scrutiny exercise could work effectively in tandem with the bus services review

·         There were only four bus providers in the county which left the Council in a poor bargaining position

·         There were cuts proposed for the no. 2 service through Habberley, Kidderminster for which the Council had refused to fund a replacement service. For urban areas of this nature, community services were not an appropriate alternative option 

·         It was important that scrutiny received the requisite officer support to enable it to do its work effectively and make the right recommendations reflecting the needs of bus users in the county

·         The Council had made a political decision to cut subsidies to bus services which had led to a reduction in the number of passenger journeys in the county. Commercial bus companies were only interested in running services that were profitable and the Council had even less influence over those decisions

·         A closure motion was moved and seconded. The Chairman was satisfied that sufficient debate had taken place and the closure motion was put to the vote and agreed. 

On being put to the vote, the motion was unanimously agreed.

Council RESOLVED "The Council is concerned at the unexpected cuts in bus services announced by First and Diamond bus companies in August which take effect on 17 and 3 September respectively.

We welcome the undertaking that the Council will carry out a fundamental review of its entire subsidised services which will involve a public consultation exercise.

We ask that this review is supported by an urgent cross-party scrutiny into current bus and community transport provision which should include the availability of transport at crucial times of the day to get to work, to school or college, to medical appointments and for shopping. The scrutiny exercise should be completed by middle/late November to feed into the 2019/20 budget-setting process."