Contact: Jenny Heath, Corporate Performance Manager, ext 01962 84-7402

Martin Robertson, Head of Passenger Transport, ext 01962 84-6997

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to summarise progress with various initiatives related to passenger transport and to highlight key issues for the future. The following information will be presented to the Policy Review Committee:

contextual information about passenger transport Best Value review (presentation to the Committee by the Head of Passenger Transport);

the Best Value inspection report and County Council response (Appendix 1);

an updated Improvement Plan, showing progress since its adoption and reflecting the recommendations of the inspection report (Appendix 2);

summary of progress since the review was completed, to be reported in the Best Value Performance Plan (Appendix 3); and

key objectives for 2002/03 and beyond

(presentation to the Committee by the Head of Passenger Transport).

2. The Best Value Review and Inspection

2.1 A Best Value review of the operational aspects of passenger transport was carried out during 2000/01. The outcomes of the review were reported to the Best Value Review Panel (Planning and Transportation) in January 2001. Plans to improve the service were captured in an Improvement Plan which was subsequently adopted by the Planning and Transportation Committee.

2.2 The Best Value Inspection Service (BVIS) carried out a full inspection of the service, based on the focus of the review during March 2001. The BVIS makes two judgements:

Judgement	Scale
A good service?	Poor; Fair*; Good**; Excellent ***
Likely to improve?	No; Unlikely; Probably (Likely); Yes

2.3 The BVIS assessed the Council as providing a good, two star service, which is likely to improve. They also acknowledged the interdependence between this review and the cross-cutting review of passenger transport. Six recommendations were made for further improvement.

2.4 The judgement is welcomed, comparing the Hampshire service favourably with others inspected. Currently there are eight published inspection reports, which cover this area of service:

five services are judged as Fair, with one Likely to Improve and the remainder Unlikely to Improve; and

three services, including Hampshire, are judged as Good and Likely to Improve.

2.5 The body of the report contains a number of factual inaccuracies and statements which cause concern and which were highlighted in the County Council's response to the draft report. Nevertheless it is important to remember that this inspection was carried out at an early stage in the development of the inspection regime and that it has been possible to respond to the specific recommendations without compromising the approach contained in the original improvement plan.

3. Progress with the Improvement Plan

3.1 The Improvement Plan aims to deliver 17 outcomes through a variety of short, medium and long term actions. This improvement plan provides target dates based on financial years, which therefore means that there is an element of forecasting in reporting progress. A revised improvement plan and a summary of progress is appended.

3.2 The key changes are the identification of the officer responsible for the implementation of each of the outcomes and some changes to the intermediate target dates for Outcomes 1 and 10. Achievement of Outcome 7 on target will be dependent on the completion of the current corporate review of standards for transport services. The one key external factor affecting the Improvement Plan, especially Outcomes 2, 3 and 4, is the current trend of rising prices and commercial service de-registrations in the bus market. This trend is restricting progress with the expansion of provision of bus services as an alternative to the private car and will be discussed in more detail in the presentation that will accompany this report.

4. Reporting in the Best Value Performance Plan

4.1 The Local Government Act 1999 requires local authorities to include recommendations from inspections and variations to targets set during Best Value Reviews in their Best Value Performance Plans. In order to avoid duplicating effort the documents referred to in paragraph 3.1 will form the contribution to the Council's performance plan, which will be published on 31 March 2002.

Recommendation

That the revised improvement plan be referred to the Executive Member for Environment.

6855/JH/MR