Agenda item

1.       That officers be authorised to carry out wide-ranging consultation on proposed changes to Local Transport with partners, stakeholders, and the wider public during the period October 2014 to January 2015.

2.       At a further meeting in spring 2015, Cabinet consider a report incorporating an equality impact assessment and costed proposals for change which take into account views expressed in the consultation.

Reasons for Decisions:

The recommendations will provide a clear mandate for officers to undertake a wide-ranging consultation on the proposed changes. This will not only explore the response of the public and stakeholders, but may also generate new ideas for improving existing provision or creating new forms of community-based transport.

The report back on the consultation will enable the Cabinet to take a fully informed decision on changes to Local Transport in Spring 2015.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Environment and Transport Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning acknowledged the excellent work that the transport team had undertaken so far on the Local Transport Review and he thanked officers in advance for their future work in the forthcoming consultation.

He said that the Local Transport Review had embraced several aspects of public transport in Surrey: provision of financial support to local buses, concessionary fares available to passengers, and provision of community transport for people who cannot use conventional local bus services. He also referred Cabinet to Annexe G of the submitted report which set out the outline proposals for consultation and engagement – these included input from the Environment and Transport Select Committee, Local Committees and Member Reference Groups.

He said that he was looking for savings of approximately £2m and that the Review was an opportunity to make changes, in particular, to the Community Transport Schemes. However, he confirmed that he was not pre-determining the outcome and recommendations following the consultation period for the Local Transport Review.

The Leader of the Council commented on the previous bus review in 2010 and said that he considered that had been one of the best reviews undertaken by the County Council. He hoped that those standards would feed through to this review. He also said that Surrey County Council’s had a generous scheme, with Surrey taxpayers subsidising approximately 50% of the 29 million bus journey each year and he hoped that residents would continue to use Surrey buses.

RESOLVED:

1.       That officers be authorised to carry out wide-ranging consultation on proposed changes to Local Transport with partners, stakeholders, and the wider public during the period October 2014 to January 2015.

2.       At a further meeting in spring 2015, Cabinet consider a report incorporating an equality impact assessment and costed proposals for change which take into account views expressed in the consultation.

Reasons for Decisions:

The recommendations will provide a clear mandate for officers to undertake a wide-ranging consultation on the proposed changes. This will not only explore the response of the public and stakeholders, but may also generate new ideas for improving existing provision or creating new forms of community-based transport.

The report back on the consultation will enable the Cabinet to take a fully informed decision on changes to Local Transport in Spring 2015.