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Executive

 

6 October 2022

(postponed from 15 and

21 September 2022)

 

Report of the Director of Transport, Environment and Planning

(Portfolio of the Executive Member for Transport)

 

Enhanced Partnership and Bus Service Improvement Plan.

 

Summary

 

1.   Executive Members are asked to:

·        Note that a statutory Enhanced Partnership between the council and local bus operators has been made by officers on Tuesday 27th September under delegated powers. The EP is a prerequisite to secure the confirmed £17.36 million in Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding from DfT.

·        Recognise the £17.36m BSIP funding for 2022-25 and confirm that the relevant sums should be added to the council’s capital programme and revenue budgets for the current, 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

·        Delegate to the Director of Transport, Environment and Planning, in

consultation with the Executive Member for Transport, the authority to draft a bespoke amendment to the Plan and Scheme in the likely event that further detail is required by DfT in order to release the full BSIP funding allocation. Any substantive changes will be brought to a future Executive Decision Session for approval.

 

 

Recommendations

 

2.        The Executive is asked to note the above points.

 

Reason:

·        To help ensure that £17.36m in DfT BSIP funding is secured, accounted for in the council’s budget programming, and that the council and bus operators can proceed with the process of delivering the stated York BSIP objectives in line with the National Bus Strategy.

 

Background

3.   Under the original DfT guidance issued alongside the National Bus Strategy in 2021, every Local Transport Authority (LTA) was required to submit a BSIP by the end of October 2021. LTAs were also required to establish either bus franchising arrangements or a statutory Enhanced Partnership for buses (EP) by the end of March 2022, in order for the LTA and local bus operators to continue receiving government support for bus services.

 

4.   On 20th May 2021, the Executive approved a recommendation for the council to pursue an EP in preference to establishing bus franchising arrangements. In their report, titled “York’s response to the National Bus Strategy”, officers were of the opinion that the challenges of bus franchising outweighed the benefits in comparison to an EP. The full report is available online at the following location:

 

https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=12511

 

5.   It should be noted that formation of an EP will not prevent the council from considering a move to bus franchising in future years.

 

6.   Following approval of the draft final BSIP by the Executive Member for Transport and Executive on 18th October 2021, the council submitted its BSIP by the 31st October deadline. A copy of the BSIP is available online at the following location:

 

https://www.itravelyork.info/downloads/file/82/york-s-bus-service-improvement-plan

 

7.   Officers subsequently prepared a draft EP Plan and Scheme for consultation with bus operators in January 2022. However, due to the total value of LTA BSIP requests across the country significantly exceeding the DfT’s total budget, plus ongoing government expenditure on Covid support for the bus industry, the DfT delayed the announcement of its BSIP allocations. Recognising that it would be impossible for LTAs to include any BSIP objectives requiring external funding in their EPs, the DfT removed the requirement for finalised post-consultation EPs to be in place by the end of March, and instead asked that draft EPs be submitted by the end of April instead.

 

8.        After further delays, the DfT’s indicative BSIP funding allocations were eventually announced on 4th April 2022. York has been offered an indicative allocation of £17.36 million for the 3 financial years 2022-2025.

 

9.        Whilst this is evidently far less than the c.£48 million ask in the York BSIP, it will nevertheless make it possible to deliver a significant number of the agreed BSIP objectives.

 

10.    The council submitted a draft ‘summary table’ setting out how it intends to use its BSIP funding, by 2nd May.

 

11.    The DfT provided feedback on the draft summary table in May. The council then submitted a final summary table on 30th June, including letters of support from all local bus operators, a section 151 value for money affirmation and a draft EP.

 

12.    On Monday 8th August, the DfT confirmed the council’s funding allocation of up to £17.36m as per the final summary table. The funding is conditional upon the council forming an Enhanced Partnership, taking into account the DfT’s feedback. The capital and revenue amounts are allocated by financial year as per the following table:

 

Financial Year

Revenue

Capital

Total

2022/23

£2,200,000

£2,375,000

£4,575,000

2023/24

£2,300,000

£4,390,000

£6,690,000

2024/25

£2,195,000

£3,900,000

£6,095,000

Total

£6,695,000

£10,665,000

£17,360,000

 

 

 

13.    During a conversation with DfT, officers agreed that the council would aim to make its EP as soon as possible in order to help ensure that at least some of the BSIP funding could be released during 2022. Any further required amendments will be made as a bespoke variation to the initial EP in order to access the 2023/24 and 2024/25 funding elements.

 

14.    The EP is defined in terms of two statutory documents, a Plan and a Scheme.

 

15.     EP Plan

 

The EP Plan is a high-level strategic document which summarises the current state of the city’s bus network and sets out the main objectives for the Enhanced Partnership. The plan includes a competition test to demonstrate that the EP will not have a negative impact on commercial competition in the local bus market. The objectives in the council’s draft EP Plan represent a significant subset of those published in the York BSIP.

 

16.     EP Scheme

 

The EP Scheme is a detailed, binding legal document which sets out exactly how the EP Plan objectives will be funded and delivered. The EP Scheme also places binding commitments on each of the EP members. The commitments in the council’s EP Scheme will represent a significant subset of those published in the York BSIP, and include high-level costings matching the summary expenditure table submitted to DfT.

 

17.     Structure and Governance

 

The EP Scheme includes information detailing how it will be governed and how variations can be proposed and decided upon.

 

The York EP will be structured around a principal operational delivery group consisting of council officers and local bus operators. This group will be supported by a number of task-specific subgroups and advised by a wider stakeholder forum.

 

Subgroups will be established to monitor, report and advise on the following areas:

·        Bus performance and reliability

·        Bus infrastructure improvements

·        Ticketing and commercial issues

·        Passenger and stakeholder engagement

·        Marketing of bus services

 

Consultation

 

18.     In order to enact the EP, the Plan and Scheme have been subjected to a statutory 28-day Operator Objection Period (OOP), where bus operators have an opportunity to review, comment on, and register their objections to any part of the scheme. The OOP commenced on Friday 8th July and concluded on Friday 5th August. Some minor amendments were agreed but no bus operators formally objected.The statutory 28-day Stakeholder Consultation Period commenced on Thursday 11th August and concluded on Thursday 8th September. During this period, members of the public and any other individuals or institutions with a potential stake in the city’s bus network were given the formal opportunity to review, comment upon or register their objections via a web-based survey form and email.

 

19.     The Stakeholder Consultation asked respondents to rate each of the proposed EP objectives and measures on five-point scale, and to provide their comments on the proposed scheme governance arrangements and any other general comments.

 

20.     543 responses were received, 7 of which were on behalf of stakeholder organisations and the remainder from individual residents. Response rates were skewed towards residents aged over 60 with 52% of all respondents, and residents in villages to the south and south-east of York (57% of all responses were from YO19, YO23 and YO43 postcodes).

 

21.     Respondents strongly agreed with the EP objectives (77% agreed, 19% no opinion, 4% disagreed). Emissions targets and punctuality of infrequent services received very high numbers of ‘strongly agree’ responses.

 

22.     Respondents strongly supported the EP measures (80% support, 16% no opinion, 4% opposed). Greening the bus fleet, fares & ticketing and bus information received very high numbers of ‘strongly support’ responses.

 

23.     An issue raised by many respondents within the free-text responses was the provision of buses to Bishopthorpe, Elvington and Wheldrake, which whilst not immediately within the scope of the EP consultation, has been noted.

 

24.     Some other concerns included:

·        The cost of bus travel

·        Frequency of bus services

·        Quality of bus information posters

·        Number of electronic timetable displays

·        The role of the EP Forum within the partnership

·        The relative merits of Park & Ride compared to the local bus network

·        The relative cost of Park & Ride compared to city centre car parks

·        Delays to buses as a result of city centre traffic

·        Concern that a growth in contactless payments might lead to bus operators no longer accepting cash

·        Concern that the BSIP money might be used to employ large numbers of staff and not deliver sufficient benefits to the public

·         

25.        There were no identifiable patterns amongst the remaining responses, which consisted of broadly supportive comments, critical comments, more specific asks and general criticisms of wider transport issues.

 

26.        As a result, officers took the delegated decision to make the EP from Tuesday 27th September. Issues raised within the consultation will be discussed by the EP Forum and EP Operational Delivery Group.

 

27.        Bespoke variations can be made to the EP Plan and Scheme once it has been established, in response to any substantial issues which might arise during the lifetime of the partnership. It is likely that the DfT will require a bespoke variation including specific details of proposed expenditure before the full amount of BSIP funding can be released.

 

 

 

Council Plan

 

28.        The proposals in this report contribute to the following key outcomes in the 2019-23 Council Plan:

29.        A greener and cleaner city – key BSIP objectives include transferring journeys from car to bus and reducing vehicle emissions.

25.   Creating homes and world class infrastructure – BSIP commitments include working with developers to ensure high-quality public transport provision for new developments, and improvements to existing public transport infrastructure.

30.        Good health and wellbeing – by moving journeys from car to bus, realising air quality improvements and reducing congestion on the highway network, a secondary effect of the BSIP will be to facilitate complimentary growth in walking and cycling mode shares.

31.        A better start for children and young people – BSIP commitments include simpler, lower bus fares for children and young people.

 

Implications

 

·           Financial – The EP commits the council to match funding some revenue items and posts not covered by BSIP funding. These are set out in the EP scheme.

 

·           Human Resources (HR) – The EP commits the council to providing a number of additional posts in the public transport team, most but not all of which are expected to be funded from BSIP. Specifically, these are:

 

a.   An Enhanced Partnership officer to lead on administration of the EP. This post will be wholly funded from BSIP revenue.

b.   Bus Wardens to provide public assistance, monitoring infrastructure and keeping bus routes clear of obstructions. These posts cannot be funded from BSIP revenue due to their prior existence as two locally-funded secondments until early 2020. However, as the postholders will be expected to hold Civil Enforcement powers following suitable training, these posts are expected to become at least partly self-funded.

c.   A Commercial Ticketing Officer to manage and grow smart and commercial ticketing schemes. This post will be wholly funded from BSIP revenue.

d.   A Bus Infrastructure Officer to manage and improve the city’s bus infrastructure. This is likely to involve formalising a position filled by a Work with York staff member since 2019.

 

·           Equalities – the Council recognises its Public Sector Equality Duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other prohibited conduct; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it in the exercise of a public authority’s functions). An Equalities Impact Assessment is being completed as part of this report. Many BSIP/EP measures are intended to improve accessibility, both to the physical bus network and to passenger information, and to improve community engagement between the council, bus operators and passengers.

 

·           Legal – The delivery of the BSIP through either an EP route or a franchise route is mandated by the Transport Act 2000.  EP Plans and Schemes are statutory documents.  The Bus Services Act 2017 incorporates a duty on local transport authorities to consult on EP Plans and EP Schemes into the Transport Act 2000.

 

Officers will work closely with Legal Services during the EP in order to enact any BSIP measures requiring the establishment of further legal agreements between the council and bus operators.

 

Legal Services have confirmed that an EP can be made under delegated authority.

 

·           Crime and Disorder- none.

      

·           Information Technology (IT) – the EP contains a commitment to maintain and grow the iTravelYork website.

 

·           Property – The EP will result in investment of up to £4m BSIP capital funding to improve the council’s Park & Ride sites.

 

·           Other – none.

 

Risk Management

 

There are no notable risks to accepting the BSIP funding and making an EP.

 

Contact Details

 

Author:

 

Chief Officer Responsible for the report:

 

Sam Fryers

Public Transport Planner

Tel No. 01904 551434

 

James Gilchrist

Director of Environment, Transport and Planning

Report Approved

ü

Date

27/09/22

 

 

 

 

 

 

Specialist Implications Officer(s) 

 

Finance -

Legal – Cathryn Moore (Legal Manager, Projects)

 

 

Wards Affected:

All

YES

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact the author of the report

 

 

Background Papers:

 

Report, 20 May 2021 - “York’s response to the National Bus Strategy” (https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=12511)

   

BSIP, October 2021 –

 

https://www.itravelyork.info/downloads/file/82/york-s-bus-service-improvement-plan

 

 

Annexes

 

Annex 1: EP Plan

 

Annex 2: EP Scheme

 

Annex 3: EP Scheme Annexes

 

Annex 4: BSIP summary table

 

Annex 5: Equalities Impact Assessment

 

List of Abbreviations Used in this Report

 

BSIP – Bus Services Improvement Plan

DfT - Department for Transport

EP – Enhanced Partnership

LTA – Local Transport Authority