York’s Voice for Bus Users

https://www.yorkbusforum.org

Corporate Services, Climate Change and Scrutiny Management Committee, Call-in, 11/03/24: Local Bus Services Review

In our submission[1] to the 20^th February Executive regarding this review, we expresses our concern about the following aspects of the its consideration of the review:

1. The review was launched just before the Christmas/New Year break with very limited

time to respond.

2. It was unclear how it related to the general review of bus services in the

city, for which further consideration would be needed once an independent consultancy report had been produced. We note that the review findings and

report produced by Momentum were considered at the Executive on 20^th February, but simply noted [2]

3. It was unclear how the consultation on this review related to the current Local Transport Strategy (LTS) consultation, which had a later deadline for responses. The abiding principle of the new LTS is to reduce bus patronage by 50% against the base figure of 2019, yet nothing in these proposals will help achieve these aims.

4. The review proposals had not been properly discussed in the Enhanced Partnership Forum prior to the consultation deadline.

5. It was impossible to fully understand the process here without information on the criteria for and the economic impact of route subsidies. We sought this information and were only supplied with it weeks after the consultation had closed.

6. There was no clear information regarding the objectives and impacts of the proposals.

Summary

Despite the above unresolved issues and extensive objections highlighting the impact on residents living in the areas affected, the Executive still decided to proceed with the proposed reductions in local services.

We therefore fully support the request by Councillors Pearson, Hollyer and Steward for calling in the Executive’s decision on the bus network review.

Graham Collett

Vice-Chair

7th March 2024