Agenda item

The report advises the Committee of the petitions presented to the Mayor at Council meetings and also includes a petition referred for consideration.

Discussion:

The lead petitioner, Mrs Matthewman, addressed the committee stating her concerns at her 12 year old daughter’s daily three hour round trip from St Mary’s Island to attend Rochester Grammar School for Girls.

Members were informed that there were 58 children living on St Mary’s Island who could make use of a direct bus service to the secondary schools and as there were further developments being built on the island, the demand for a direct bus service would increase.

The lead petitioner spoke about the environmental, economic and educational benefits a direct bus service would bring to all the residents of Medway, as it would cut down on the number of ‘parental taxis’ driving to and from the schools, a lack of bus service was a disincentive for people to move into new housing provision and it was also a barrier for many mothers to work full time because of the need to drive their children to and from school.

Councillor Esterson, as ward councillor, also addressed the committee and spoke about a question that had been raised at Council on 15 April 2010 on the same subject. He reminded Members that there had been an underspend on the half price travel subsidy for young people last year. At the Council meeting, the Portfolio Holder had advised that the budget spent on subsidising other bus routes was up by £1 million and therefore a large proportion of the underspent budget had been used to ensure people were able to get to work. However, Councillor Esterson pointed out that this was a route specifically being asked for children to use which was what the budget was meant to be spent on. There was an opportunity now, whilst the budget was still there, to provide this service.

The committee asked questions about the cost effectiveness of running a service along this route all day or whether a twice a day trip specifically for school children, similar to the yellow bus scheme, would be more viable.

Officers responded that where the council subsidised a route it tried to meet a variety of needs but there were a few examples of subsidy being used specifically for a school route.

Members asked whether the route from St Mary’s Island to the secondary schools would qualify as a yellow bus route, in comparison to the number of children using the yellow buses already running. Officers were also asked whether there was a rationale of priorities considered when the current yellow bus routes were chosen.

Officers advised that the yellow bus scheme had been developed primarily to reduce the use of cars and it had been recognised that initially the scheme would not have been achievable throughout the whole of Medway. The number of routes had slowly increased and there had been a few more added in the current tender process.

Officers added that the route requested in the petition had been added to the list of tenders which were due to be received by 3 June 2010. A draft route and timings had been developed for the tender process which would get the children to their schools 10-15 minutes before school started. Due to the different school closing times, it would mean the bus would have to wait for 10 minutes in one case waiting for that school to close. Members were advised that a service that ran once in the morning and once in the afternoon would not allow children to stay behind at school for any extra-curricular activities.

The committee was also advised that it might be possible to review and adjust the current early morning journeys to reduce the journey time by improving the connections in Chatham. However, with the service being used by students from six schools and commuters also using the service to access Chatham railway station, it was difficult to time the service to meet everybody’s needs efficiently. The current afternoon service (from Chatham to St Mary’s Island) ran without a subsidy from the council so there was no direct control by the council but officers would be happy to talk this through with the bus company.

Decision:

The Regeneration, Community and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed to:

(a)               note the petition responses and appropriate officer action in paragraph 3 of the report;

(b)               ask the Cabinet to note its strong support for the petitioners request to establish a bespoke bus service for children travelling between St Mary's Island and secondary schools in Chatham and Rochester;

(c)            request that Cabinet considers subsidising this route (even by way of yellow bus scheme) if no bus company has shown an interest in providing this service;

(d)             request a report back on the outcome of the tender process to the next
meeting of the committee on 6 July 2010 meeting.