Archived decisions

Contact: Peter Brown, ext 6256 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report considers progress on the implementation of the Action Plan for the Cross-Cutting Passenger Transport Best Value Review and outlines recent achievements. The Committee is asked to note this progress and proposed changes to the management of the outstanding issues. In future, these will be considered as part of the refocusing of the County Council's Second Local Transport Plan (2005-2011) to commence preparation in 2004/05.

2. Background Information

2.1 The cross-cutting review of Passenger Transport pulled together conclusions from the reviews of transport provision in the Education, Social Services and Environment departments by setting up arrangements to improve the future coordination of transport procurement across the County Council. Given the complexity of the services and the arrangements for delivering them across the public sector as a whole, the recommendations aimed to establish new mechanisms for improvements over the following two to three year period.

2.2 The review's outcome report recognised the challenge of ensuring that momentum is maintained and creative approaches continue to be put forward to develop joint cross-service initiatives. These would seek to maximise the potential to address the underlying issues of congestion and social exclusion in the most effective way. A progress report on this matter was presented to the Committee on 5 September 2002. This report provides a further update.

3. Recent Progress

3.1 Implementation of the Review's recommendations has been undertaken by the individual service departments through a Steering Group, which includes Member representation from Councillor Tim Knight. A copy of the review's Improvement Plan, updated to note the completion or

rescheduling of the actions is attached as Appendix 1. A summary of the specific actions that have taken place since September 2003 is attached as Appendix 2.

3.2 In addition to overseeing progress on the original action plan, the Steering Group has been developing ideas for joint initiatives with external partners, as well as cross-departmental issues. These deliberations have identified the potential to develop pilot projects (as described in the attached appendix) to address the Corporate Strategy aims. In turn, they have highlighted opportunities to maximise the benefits arising from the transport services provided by or on behalf of the county council.

4. Future Management of Action Plan

4.1 With most of the action points arising from the original Review now addressed and the focus now switching to new ideas, the working group's recent discussions have identified the need to fully integrate the devising of these opportunities into the County Council's Second Local Transport Plan. This would ensure that the significant contribution Hampshire County Council directly plays in movement issues, either through the transport it provides as part of its other services or the travel arising in connection with people accessing services, can be considered within its wider context.

4.2 As discussed above, the initial deliberations on this topic identified that the three local area based pilot projects could look at the County Council's direct contribution in a more integrated way. This approach should also integrate with the investigations being undertaken by the working group looking at transport as part of the Members' priorities. It is expected that a full report embracing the way forward on all these initiatives will be presented to Members in spring/summer 2004.

Recommendation

That the Committee notes the progress made on the Action Plan of the Passenger Transport Cross-Cutting Best Value Review and endorses the approach to develop and implement the future programme.

8478/PB

APPENDIX 2

Cross-Cutting Best Value Review of Passenger Transport

Activities and Progress Report

January 2004

The `Cango' service and its associated Call Demand Centre was implemented on 1 July 2002 and as previously reported, a fully-accessible demand responsive minibus service was introduced on seven routes to the north and east of Andover. Further services have now been established in the New Forest, Hart, Havant and Basingstoke, with more services due to be implemented in East Hampshire from June 2004. In the majority of areas these have replaced conventional bus routes and operate mainstream and Special Educational Needs transport in an integrated way. The scope of the call centre has been extended to cover the scheduling of some individual Social Services transport and other door-to-door transport services sponsored by the authority, thus putting the resources available to the most effective use.

Social Services transport provision arranged through the Environment Department is proceeding through a pilot project for transport in the Eastleigh and Romsey area that utilises the new Demand Centre which came onstream in July 2002. The main aims are to free-up care workers' time from making transport arrangements and make the best use of available transport. The pilot project commenced in August 2003 and its effectiveness will be reviewed in February 2004.

Consistent Health and Safety standards for drivers of all County Council vehicles have now been devised and were published in the corporate policy 'Road Transport and Driving' in spring 2003. This policy includes Standards for managers and others to meet and is implemented via departmental health and safety procedures. Additionally, guidance was produced to assist managers of services using minibuses to comply with the driving licence rules.

Pilots for devolution of school transport budgets were proposed to correspond with the introduction of the new education funding regime from April 2003 which removed school budget delegation targets from the County Council but introduced separate schools and Local Education Authority funding blocks. The proposed pilots would have devolved funding to schools for use in operating home to school transport supported by Service Level Agreements. Alas, there was insufficient interest by mainstream schools in undertaking the pilot studies. The options for devolution pilots in some special schools are being examined for a possible start in September 2004.

Proposals to experiment with a fleet of County Council owned `school' buses, considered by the Executive Member for Education in spring 2002, identified a high level of financial/operational risks in providing for home-to-school transport in isolation. Further work was therefore undertaken to assess how a bus fleet could be used across a wider scope of service areas and be integrated into mainstream passenger transport. This has identified a number of opportunities to make better overall use of transport resources but financial/operational risks remain. Options to progress local pilots offer a way of assessing these risks in practice and a proposal is expected to be prepared for inclusion in the County Council's Local Transport Plan.

Roll out of `clean sheet' approach to South East Hampshire. Consultants completed their report in December 2002. However, some of the recommendations are impractical or would require the removal of legislative barriers which are unlikely at present. For example, it is currently illegal for bus operators to co-ordinate their timetables for competing commercial services along the same route, as suggested in the report. Other recommendations are being kept under review and will be implemented progressively where practical.

Reduce traffic congestion caused by school run. This action proposed to investigate the provision of non-statutory support to school journeys through developing a cost/benefit analysis for a specific example. Progress has been hindered by legislative barriers but proposed legislation during the coming year will allow this to be done more easily. A pilot area may therefore be investigated from September 2005. The County Council has made good progress, however, with the development of School Travel Plans in partnership with an increasing number of Hampshire schools (70 with plans and a further 69 in preparation), which will contribute to meeting this action.

Solutions for Cross Cutting Issues. Opportunities have been identified to establish ways in which the corporate involvement in transport demand and provision and can be better planned and implemented in a more coordinated fashion, both within the County Council and with its key partners. This has led to the identification of three potential projects for future action.

(i) At Ringwood, it is proposed to develop a travel plan for this rural market town to publicise local facilities, services and ease congestion. Though an engagement process with schools, primary care trusts, local businesses, discussions will seek to identify initiatives that can make the best use of existing infrastructure and services.

(ii) At Basingstoke North, there are opportunities arising from new development to consider how to reduce the overall need for travel and improve physical access to some of the town's health, school and cultural facilities.

(iii) At Leigh Park, Havant, transport can play a significant role in reducing social exclusion. This proposal would therefore develop new initiatives in conjunction with existing ones such as CANGO and Quality Bus Partnerships, with the objective of reducing social isolation in one of the most deprived areas of Hampshire.

Further investigation of these proposals will be developed as part of the area transport strategies. A further proposal for Andover to be the national Integrated Transport Showcase Town for Britain was made to the Department for Transport but was unsuccessful.