Archived decisions

APPENDIX 1

RUSHMOOR STAFF TRAVEL PLAN

1.0 Introduction

The report proposes the introduction of a Rushmoor staff travel plan. The aims of the travel plan are to encourage staff to consider transport choices when travelling to and from work or when travelling to appointments during work time.

The Council needs a travel plan because:

We encourage other businesses and organisations in the borough to have a travel plan so must lead by example;

The example has already been set by Government offices and the County Council who have travel plans in place;

The council can demonstrate its commitment to the local and global environment by encouraging staff to use alternative means of transport.

2.0 Elements of a Rushmoor Staff Travel Plan

A staff consultation was carried out last year to find out what changes could be introduced to support staff in finding alternative travel methods to the private car.

The survey also asked where Rushmoor staff live in relation to their place of work and what factors determined their transport choice.

The survey is summarised at Appendix A.

From the consultation it was decided that the following elements were worth pursuing to be included in the first phase of a Rushmoor staff travel plan:

Pool car

Improved facilities for cyclists

Car sharing database

Homeworking

Experience has shown from elsewhere that travel plans that are too ambitious are not working. The above elements will be achievable and likely to be used by staff. Further initiatives to discourage car use or to promote greater use of public transport have been considered and can be brought in later when alternative choices are more realistic and available. These could include sharing a staff commuter bus with other organisations and interest free loans for rail passes.

Pool Car

One of the reasons for staff bringing a car to work is that they need to travel to meetings or on site visits during the day.

The travel plan includes the purchase of an "environment friendly" car to be available for staff to book and use during the working day.

The car will be managed by Administration Services and can be financed through service level agreements from the departments that use it. It can be shown that the savings made from travel expenses will more than cover the cost of the vehicle.

A financial appraisal of the purchase and operational costs, including pay back period, is set out in section 4 of this report.

Other benefits include the release of parking places at the Council offices and Pinehurst car park. This could create some additional revenue and be a demonstration of our environmental responsibility.

Cycle facilities

A programme of improvements to locker, cycle storage and shower facilities is already programmed over the coming months. The Rushmoor travel plan will make staff aware of the facilities that are available, including the network of safe cycle facilities in the borough, to encourage staff to cycle more. Further capital funding of around £3,000 is required for the provision of an extension to the existing secure cycle facility.

Car sharing database

A simple to use car sharing database has been developed on the Council Intranet to help staff to find partners to share car transport with. The Rushmoor travel plan will make staff more aware of this facility and, if successful, consider inducements (car sharing spaces in the Council offices car park) to encourage this further.

Homeworking

Some staff already recognise the efficiencies of working from home, this also of course has a positive effect on car travel. While this practice may not be possible for all staff, due to their type of work requiring them to be in the workplace, some could work from home.

Homeworking guidelines have been developed to assist managers and staff in understanding the benefits of homeworking and to ensure that it can be consistently applied, where possibly across the organisation.

3.0 Implementation of Rushmoor Travel Plan

Subject to the approval of the Cabinet to the travel plan as outlined in this report it is expected that it could be launched in March.

A Rushmoor travel plan leaflet can be prepared and presented to staff prior to this that will include targets to be monitored after its introduction.

It is proposed that the following indicators will be used to monitor the effectiveness of the Rushmoor travel plan:

Number of staff who live within a mile of their place of work who travel by car.

Number of staff who regularly cycle to work (at least once a week).

Number of staff who share car transport to work on a regular basis (at least two days a week).

Number of trips by Rushmoor Pool car.

Number of staff Homeworking days.

4.0 Pool Car - Financial Appraisal

It is proposed to purchase a Smart car for use as the pool car. This would require capital funding of £6,400. The financial appraisal below compares the cost to purchase or lease the vehicle. As there appears to be no cost difference between the two options it is considered that the lease option may provide less risk to the Council.

The scheme would be targeted at "casual" users who make regular short trips within the borough or immediate surrounding area. Of the 192 staff who claim for car mileage 127 are casual users.

Smart Car - financial appraisal

Purchase Lease

£ £

Purchase price/ lease 6,400 5,400

Logo 800 800

Insurance (£500x3) 1,500 1,500

Tax (£100x3) 300 0

Servicing and repairs 900 0

Loss of interest (£350x3) 1,050 0

Residual value (3,200) 0 Net cost 7,750 7,700

Annual cost 2,583 2,567

Casual Mileage rate 0.380 0.380

Fuel cost per mile 0.062 0.062

Saving per mile 0.318 0.318

Annual

"Break even" mileage 8,124 8,071

Annual working days 253 253

"Break even" mileage

per day 32 32

5.0 Recommendation

The Cabinet is asked to approve:

i. the introduction of the Rushmoor travel plan and the performance indicators which will monitor its effectiveness.

ii. Capital funding of £10,000 for purchase/lease of the pool car and extension to the secure cycle facility.

JIM PETTITT

HEAD OF STREET SCENE SERVICES

(Rushmoor Travel Plan working group-

Nicky Orchard, Martin Mc Carthy, Les Murrell, David Levey)

Appendix A

RUSHMOOR TRAVEL PLAN

Newsletter No.1 April 2004

To prepare a Rushmoor Travel Plan questionnaires have been sent out to all of Rushmoor's employees to fill in. The aim of this is to find out from staff how they travel to and from work. The survey also asked what you would like to see put in place in the future to reduce the number of car journeys.

The number of questionnaires that were issued to staff was 320. Street Scene Services have had 121 returned (38%). To be sure that we get all your views we want those who have not responded to fill out the simple questionnaire.

It is available on Rushmoor's INFORM Intranet and please could the people in Rushmoor and the outstations complete the form as they have access to the Rushmoor Website by the end of April.

Rushmoor Borough Council has formed a Travel Plan Working Group of these following people: -

Jim Pettitt

Les Murrell

Nicky Orchard

Martin McCarthy

David Levey (Has been producing the information for the rest of the Working Group).

The Working Group is currently looking at the results from the survey, which provide good information and suggestions from some people. That will help us prepare a Rushmoor Travel Plan.

The following charts and results below display how many people responded mostly to the questions asked: -

How far people travel to work each day

_ Majority (44) between 2 & 5 miles

_ Surprising number over 20 miles

_ But there are 21 staff (17%) who live less than 2 miles away

How people travel to work

_ 113 people (93%) come by car

_ 16 people who live less than 2

miles away come by car

What reason do people give for driving to work?

_ 36% of people say that a car is

essential for their job

_ 21% need their car to carry out

other errands (drop/collect children 16%,

lunchtime 5%)

_ 27% drive for convenience

To produce a draft Rushmoor Travel Plan the Working Group will look at those areas where people said they would change their travel to work arrangement if certain improvements were made.

_ Some improvements require external change, like public transport

_ 24% of people would car share

_ 40% saw home working as a solution

Encourage car share

_ 30 people would like help finding others to share with

Pool Car

_ 70 people said that they would use a pool car if it were available.

Home Working

_ 78 people need access to IT network or home PC

_ 63 people felt they would do this if it were Council Policy to encourage home working

The Working Group will now get together to develop some suggestions on how to change Policies or Initiatives that could be included in the Rushmoor Travel Plan.

Our intentions are to seek out and provide conclusions on this work by communication in our next newsletter.

Finally, thanks to all staff who returned the completed questionnaires in December 2003. If you have not filled out a questionnaire you can still do so. It is available on the INFORM site.