Norman Baker MP

Liberal Democrat Minister Norman Baker has announced a further round of financial allocations aimed at providing improved bus services.

The “Better Bus Area” guidance for local authorities can be found by clicking here

Essentially local Councils may, in future, be responsible for managing the Bus Service Operators Grant (a fuel cost related subsidy)

Over the last couple of years, the York Council has largely ignored sub-urban areas when submitting their bids for improved bus services.

Unforgivably, they have also failed to include a requirement for participating bus companies to publish service reliability information in return for subsidies.

Hopefully that short sighted policy will change when the new bids are agreed in June.

If it doesn’t then we will be writing to the government asking them to reject any bid for funding being submitted by the York Council.

NB. The Council are also now seeking tenders for the provision of Park and Ride services from the new Poppleton Bar site. Originally the Council had hoped to use state of the art low emission buses on this route which also might have been integrated with stage carriage services to provide a comprehensive network serving north west York.

It was to be the trial area for a “Quality Contract” franchising system

This is the system favoured by Labour who have pledged to introduce it across the whole City; although recently – despite spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on set up costs – they have gone very quiet on their implementation timetable.

There has been no consultation with bus users and drivers about the bus plans for Poppleton Bar, so it’s anyone’s guess at this stage what will emerge when the decision is taken on 16th May.

Although only 24 Labour Councillors voted for the cuts budget proposed by their leadership it was enough to see the proposals passed at last nights Council meeting.

Gale Farm Court – To be privatised in 2014 under Labour plans

Now residents face a lethal cocktail of higher Council Tax levels, higher charges and rapidly deteriorating street level public services.

One local Westfield Councillor deliberately snubbed the many local residents who have been campaigning against the introduction of a 20 mph speed limit across the area. The cost of introducing the new limit is put at £600,000. He claimed in the media that it would “reduce accidents”. In reality in places like Portsmouth the introduction of such a limit has coincided with an increase in accident levels.

Cllr Williams, and his Westfield side kick Cllr Burton, then voted to reduce expenditure on road safety improvements by £75,000!

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ann Reid said, “Labour’s cuts to the roads budget have hit home in recent months with officers admitting that due to the sheer volume of problems they are being forced into ‘quick fix’ and temporary solutions. It is only through prudent long-term investment that we can reverse this decline. Our £500,000 package would not only help residents, but also local businesses and economic development. While Labour throws £100,000 at an Arts Barge and gives a £1million unmonitored ‘slush fund’ to the Council Leader, the Liberal Democrats would invest in the roads and frontline services that matter most to local residents.”

NB. Perhaps not surpisingly Labour came a distant FOURTH in the Eastleigh parliamentary by election last night. Tories were third. The seat was held by the Liberal Democrats. Shame we don’t have annual Council elections in York anymore!

Bus users in and around York are being asked for their views on proposed changes to the city’s bus network at a consultation event taking place next month.

Members of the public are invited to attend a public forum on Friday 8 February at York Explore Library Learning Centre’s cafe, between 10am and 12.30pm, to comment or put questions to York’s bus operators and the council’s transport team about the city’s bus services.

It provides an opportunity for residents to argue for the route of the number 4/5 to be changed to take in Front Street and Ridgeway.

Residents can also support the campaign aimed at forcing the Council and bus operators to published reliability statistics for the routes that they operate in the City.

Residents can also email their views or comments to: transport.planning@york.gov.uk. Responses must be received by the end of Friday 8 February.

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Yesterdays Council meeting decided to end the Sunday and early evening subsidy for the number 14 bus service.

It will in future operate only as a day time “commercial” service. The route links Beckfield Lane to York City centre and beyond. The service currently provides the only link to the new Sports Village on Hull Road.

Other decisions were to:

• Re-tender services 21 and 35.

• Invite tenders for replacement services on revised routes 24 (minus the Cornlands Road -Acomb link) & 26 (minus the Askham Bar – Foxwood Lane link). The 26 would continue to serve the St Stephens Road and Ascot Way areas. These services currently have a £153,900 a year Council subsidy.

• Provide a Monday to Saturday hourly daytime 15 service to the South Bank area of York. A plan is to be put in place “to solve the issues surrounding the route 15 should Council funding not be available”.

The meeting agreed to make representations to First about problems with the 5 and 13 services which had been highlighted by residents.

Public consultation “both online and at a public meeting” is promised

A meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) is being asked to support a campaign by local residents who are seeking a change in the route that the number 4/5 bus service takes through Acomb.

Front Street in older times

Residents are asking that, rather than travelling to and from Green Lane via Acomb Green, the service travel along Wetherby Road, Ridgeway, Askham Lane and Front Street to intersect with the existing route on Green Lane.

This will restore the link for residents living in Acomb and the Cornlands area who wish to visit those services which are located in the old village (Library, Post Office, Chemist, Doctors Surgery etc.).

This link was lost when the old number 4 route was changed in October.

The revised route would offer a two way service. It is a commercial service so the change would require the agreement of the operators First

We don’t believe that bus service quality standards in York are as poor as some would like to make out.

However an insight into the secretive world of York politics came at the last Council meeting which might raise concerns.

A reasonable question had been tabled to Dave Merrett a Labour Councillor who is responsible for public transport policy in the City. The interchange went like this:

“At the October Council meeting the Cabinet Member agreed to “look into” publishing reliability information provided by those bus operators providing services under Council contracts, as well as asking the bus operators to authorise the Council to publish the number of “All York” tickets sold each month. What progress has been made and where can bus passengers in York now access reliability information for the services that they use?” from Cllr Reid

Answer
This is a commercial product of the operators. It is commercial data that belongs to the operators and the operators view is that this is commercially sensitive information. Its disclosure could have a negative impact on both the future development of all York products and on general operations. With regard to reliability data, the Council receives real time reliability data which it uses to inform highway improvements and bus service planning. Provision of the data to the Council by operators is on the basis of a data sharing agreement which restricts the Council from publishing the data on a route by route basis. The Council does, however, annually publish reliability data for the whole York bus network and this is available from the Department for Transport. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/quarterly-bus-statistics-quarter-2-2012

So is Cllr Merrett in favour of publishing bus reliability information in a way that is both useful and accessible?

Who knows from this answer?

The fact that he abandoned all independent quality checks, of bus service reliability, when he took office 19 months ago, suggests that either he didn’t want to know how efficient the local bus services were, or he didn’t want passengers to find out.

……..and does he know how many “All York” tickets have been sold? The Council taxpayer clearly has an interest here as £20,000 of York resident’s money was used to publicise the scheme (Basically we know that sales of the ticket have been very small).

The solution is simple. If the bus companies still refuse to publish quality of service information then no further taxpayers subsidies, or service contracts, should be authorised for companies that do not agree to release reliability data.

There are £800,000 worth of contracts coming up for renewal shortly.

Time to give some support to bus passengers in the City we think.

NB. Park and Ride bus fares are set to increase on 6th January 2013. The new charges are:
Single – £2 (unchanged)
Return now £2.60
Concessionary Single – 60p* (unchanged)

MinsterCard tickets:

Stored value return now £2.30
Weekly ticket now £10.40
Monthly ticket now £41.60
Annual ticket now £416.00

*available after 0900 Monday-Friday and all day weekends & bank holidays to holders of a valid concessionary pass

The amount that central government pays the York council to provide public services will be reduced by 1.1% for the next financial year. This is significantly lower than the national average reduction (1.7%). It compares with a 2.5% reduction in North Yorkshire and a 2.3% reduction in Leeds.

The reduction is offset by increased grants for education. York does well out of the revised pupil premium allocations which will help to address poverty concerns in the City.

In addition the City will benefit from additional income for the provision of additional homes (the new homes bonus)

At least 50% of any increase in Business Rates income will also be retained in the City.

As reported yesterday, extra money is also being provided for road repairs.

The new funding system means that 70% of expenditure in City’s like York will be locally funded meaning that the Council has more control over the financial strategy of the City.

However, the present Labour Council has been heavily criticised for prioritising “vanity” projects like the proposed “arts barge” while substantially increasing the amount that the local authority is borrowing.

It is the repayment on this additional debt that could prove to be a millstone around the necks of successive generations living in the City.
The government has also announced that funding will be available for the next two years to freeze Council Tax levels. The Council in York spurned a similar offer last February introducing a 2.9% Council Tax increase. It remains to be seen whether the prospect of funding for 2 years will prompt a different reaction. If not residents face a 2% increase in Council Tax in April 2013 and a further hike a year later.

The Council have also turned down government grant payments which would have seen any reduction in Council Tax benefit entitlement, for the less well off, limited to 8%.

http://tinyurl.com/Grant-comparisons
http://tinyurl.com/York-grant
http://www.local.odpm.gov.uk/finance/1314/plainenglishguide.pdf

First buses have confirmed that the bus stop at the Foxwood Lane shops WILL NOT BE MOVED.

Claims that the stop would be relocated were made in the media last week following complaints about buses “stacking” at the new number 4 route terminus. This had affected access to parking and visibility lines at the pedestrian crossing.

It has now been confirmed that a “timing” point will be established on Cornlands Road. This is intended to even out the gaps between services and prevent “bunching”.

The service between Acomb and Foxwood Lane remains at a 15 minute frequency. Cornlands Road to the City centre (via Foxwood Lane) has 8 buses an hour during the day.

Other bus services are not affected.

In addition to free City centre car parking, 3 of the City’s park and ride sites will be operating on Boxing Day

However there will be no other bus services running in the City on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day. (Details of services running across North Yorkshire during the holiday period ca be found here http://getdown.org.uk/bus/xmas.shtml). It seems more than slightly ironic, less than a month after a Council commissioned report criticised off peak bus services in the City, that the authority should choose to subsidise (to the tune of £10,000) park and ride services at the expense of its own residents. Most of the City centre car parks are half empty on Boxing Day anyway, reducing the need to encourage people to park on the outskirts of the City.

Three Park & Ride services will operate on Boxing Day, including:

• Askham Bar (route 3) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Tower Street at 6.42pm
• Designer Outlet (route 7) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.42pm
• Monks Cross (route 9) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.43pm

All three services will operate at a 15 minute frequency throughout the day and will be FREE for all passengers (and will stop at all usual stops along the route).

For more information about Park & Rides over Christmas and New Year visit www.york.gov.uk/transport or www.itravelyork.info