Agenda item

This report advises the Committee of any petitions received by the Council which fall within the remit of this Committee including a summary of the responses sent to petitioners by officers.

Discussion:

The Committee received a report setting out petitions received by the Council which fell within the remit of the Committee, including a summary of the responses sent to petitioners by Officers.

The Committee was advised that two petitioners had requested that their petitions be referred to this Committee and the Chairman welcomed Mrs Jeeves and Mrs Lovell to the meeting. He also welcomed Mrs Gibbs, who was in attendance to support Mrs Lovell.

On the basis that Mrs Jeeves and Mrs Lovell’s petitions related to changes to bus services operated by Arriva in the Walderslade area, the Chairman welcomed Glen Shuttleworth, Head of Operations and Robert Patterson, Commercial Development Manager from Arriva to the meeting.

The Chairman drew attention to Item 6 on the agenda and advised the Committee that he intended to take both items 5 and 6 together as they related to the same topic.

The Chairman then invited the petitioners to address the Committee on their concerns regarding the changes made by Arriva to bus services in the Walderslade area.

Both Mrs Jeeves and Mrs Lovell, supported by Mrs Gibbs outlined petitioners concerns that in July, without any consultation, residents in the Walderslade area, many of whom were elderly, had found that their bus services had been reduced in frequency. They stated that as a result of these reductions, many elderly and disabled individuals, who were reliant on public transport, were no longer able to participate in their usual activities such as attending clubs or shopping and were becoming isolated.

The petitioners advised that their area of Walderslade had previously been served by 3 buses per hour and that this had been reduced to 3 buses per day and, unless they were able to walk half mile to and from the nearest bus stop at Poachers Pocket they were required to catch the last bus at 14.10pm back to Walderslade from Chatham. This was not considered acceptable by the petitioners particularly as others areas of Medway had seen an increase in the level of buses provided on certain journeys.

The petitioners accepted that Arriva was a commercial company and was therefore required to run services for profit but requested that if Arriva could reconsider its decision to reduce the bus services to the Walderslade area and increase the number of buses by just two or three more buses per day, this would be helpful to the residents.

The Committee noted that following representations from both Councillors and the public, Arriva had recently made a number of changes to the 176 and 179 timetables and an additional commercial 179 journey had been introduced from Walderslade at 09.05 Monday to Saturday. Details of these changes were set out in Item 6 on the agenda.

In response to the petitioners concerns, Robert Patterson from Arriva accepted that the Company’s consultation processes on the changes to the bus services earlier in the year had not been adequate and he offered apologies for this.

Glen Shuttleworth from Arriva reassured the Committee and the petitioners that the changes had not been undertaken for the purposes of making savings but to provide customers with a better service. With the help of consultants and through use of census data, Arriva had established where its customers were located and which bus services were being utilised and those that were under utilised. Those services that had been removed were not considered commercially viable and the buses had been relocated on alternative routes to meet customer demand.

Glen Shuttleworth advised that Arriva had listened to customer concerns and, as a result, some bus links had been added but it was not possible for the service to return to that previously provided as the service was not being used sufficiently to be commercially viable.

Members expressed concern that it appeared that Arriva were diverting bus services away from areas with a high concentration of passengers with concessionary bus passes to boost services in areas with paying passengers.

Robert Patterson commended the petitioners for the valuable information they held on the wishes to the public in the Walderslade area and the passion that they had shown in attending this meeting to discuss their concerns. He suggested that Arriva meet with the petitioners to discuss their concerns in more detail so that Arriva could fully understand the issues and assess whether there was a way forward to resolve the issues. Councillor Brake as Ward Councillor advised the Committee that he was happy to facilitate this meeting.

Glen Shuttleworth added that Arriva were willing to attend any Resident Association meetings to discuss issues of concern with the local community and to explain the rationale behind the changes that had been implemented.

A Member questioned Arriva’s social responsibility to provide services in areas where there is a high concentration of concessionary bus pass users and whether they were allowed to calculate profitability across a whole bus route (averaged) rather than across individual segments - since they had increased the frequency of other parts of that route. Glen Shuttleworth explained that whilst some bus routes were more profitable than others, it was not possible for one bus route to cross subsidise another. Therefore, each bus route was required to be self sufficient. He acknowledged that Medway Council currently provided subsidies to enable Arriva to operate bus services in areas where routes were not considered viable for a commercial company.

He briefly outlined Arriva’s investment in the existing fleet of buses in Medway and offered to undertake a presentation to the Committee on the way in which a bus company operates as a business.

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman thanked the petitioners and representatives for attending the meeting.

Decisions: 

a)            The Committee noted the petition responses and appropriate officer actions in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the report;

b)            In response to the petitions referred to in paragraph 5 of the report relating to the changes to the Arriva bus services in Walderslade, it be noted that:

i)      Arriva have acknowledged that its consultation processes require review so as to ensure that all parties and residents are aware of any future proposals to change bus services;

ii)     Arriva has offered to undertake a presentation to the Committee on the operation of the bus services in Medway

iii)    in response to the offer from Arriva to meet the petitioners from Walderslade, Councillor Brake as Ward Councillor has offered to facilitate such meeting.

c)            A report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee on the outcome of iii) above.