Agenda and draft minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or other registerable interest they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

Members were asked to declare, at this point in the meeting, any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interest that they might have in respect of the business on the agenda. There were none.

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Webcasting of Public Meetings

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It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Councils Public Participation Scheme.

The paper sets out the Governments development of National Bus Strategy and the Councils response of developing an Enhanced Partnership and then preparing a Bus Service Improvement Plan which secured £17.3 million pounds of funding for the cities bus services which was received in November 2022.  The report details the progress towards delivery, the primary focus of which has been on safeguard current services.

Members considered a report that set out the Governments development of National Bus Strategy and the Councils response of developing an Enhanced Partnership and then preparing a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) which secured £17.3 million pounds of funding for the cities bus services which was received in November 2022.  The report also detailed the progress towards delivery, the primary focus of which had been on safeguarding current services.

In attendance at the meeting was the Executive Member for Transport and from York Bus Forum were Graham Collett (Vice-Chair), Niall McFerran (Secretary) and Flick Williams (Accessibility Officer). The Executive Member was also in attendaance, and the Head of Active and Sustainable Transport and Director of Transport, Environment and Planning were in attendance to present the report.

Niall McFerran welcomed the BSIP funding and suggested that it needed more detail and more of a plan. He noted that buses were crucial for York and provided a reduction in pollution and congestion on the city. He noted the importance of providing a reliable bus service and that too many people in the city wanted to catch a bus but couldn’t as the buses were unrealiable. He added that buses were of critical importance to the city.

Graham Collett noted that there should be a focus on supported services and an enhanced bus partnership. He explained that the council was supporting three bus services from the BSIP funding. He added that it was unclear who would run and what level of service there would be for the no12 bus route. He noted a number of cancellations with that route the previous Wednesday to Saturday and there had been other cancellations from the same operator. He asked why the could not implement conditions in the contract and scrutinse bus services. He asked of the enhanced partnersip was fit to work if there was no user engagement.

Flick Williams noted that the Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) did not meet the social model of disability. She suggested that cuts to bus services were inevitable and she asked if there was funding to enhance real time information and accessibility. Regarding the EIA she noted that some disabled and older people were still cautious of Covid. She noted that the last section of the EIA suggested that groups such as York Bus Forum were being held to do the ‘heavy lifting’. She noted the need for clean, regular, reliable and accessible buses.

The Head of Active and Sustainable Transport outlined the report detailing the BSIP funding. With reference to the no 12, 13 and 4112 bus services, the Director of Transport, Environment and Planning noted that those services were not being supported at the expense of others and that there was flexibility in those contracts. The Head of Active and Sustainable Transport  explained that returning people back to buses was important to the BSIP and the bus network had been stabilised. In relation to investment in real time bus screens he noted that they had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.