Archived decisions
Passenger transport review and retendering Havant - Service 22
The area review is one of a series of district by district reviews across the county designed to help the County Council provide passenger transport services which best match the needs of residents within the context of available budget provision.
Bus industry costs are rising ahead of inflation - 24% in Havant compared to a local authority funding increase from Central Government of 2.5%. We are reviewing all our current services to ensure that we offer a service to the widest section of the community. For some users, this may mean a different sort of vehicle - in some cases a shared taxi instead of a bus - or a reduced frequency. If we did not do this, some residents would be left completely without transport as the cost rises mean that monitoring existing networks is not unaffordable.
In some cases bus users may have to change buses to complete their journey, this is in accordance with Department for Transport accessibility criteria, and for those passengers changing in Havant town centre, Hampshire County council has invested £1.8million in the new Havant bus station.
Current Service 22 is:
From West Leigh via Wakefords Way, Prospect Lane, Bartons Road, Petersfield Road, Stockheath Road, Dunsbury Way, Bramdean Drive, Botley Drive, Middle Park Way, Park House Farm Way, Purbrook Way, Crookhorn Lane, College Road, Portsdown Hill Road, London Road, Cosham, Northern Road, Portsmouth Road, London Road, Copnor Road, Old London Road, London Road, Kingston Road, Fratton Road, Arundel Street, Station Street, Commercial Road, Edinburgh Road, Queen Street, The Hard to Porstmouth, The Hard Interchange.
The service pattern is 6 return journeys (Mon-Fri) and 5 return journeys on Saturday at 2 hourly frequency.
Why are we cutting service 22?
The cost of supporting service 22 would rise by 58% to £73,000 compared to the cost to June 2006 and the service fails to meet our value for money criteria for essential users.
Service 27 will be re-routed to serve Prospect Lane, Bartons Road and Petersfield Road meaning that all roads served by the 22 will continue to receive a bus service.
Service 22 has become unaffordable and existing users will continue to have a bus service; in some cases they will need to change to another bus to reach their destination.
To continue funding service 22, where passengers have alternative services, would have meant withdrawing other services where passengers would have no alternative.
What consultation has taken place?
Consultation prior to the invitation to tenders involved -
· Havant Borough Council
· Portsmouth Bus Users
· Bus Users UK
· Ratepayer Magazine
· Leigh Park Community Centre
· Havant Information & Resource Centre
· Hayling Island Residents Assn
· Waterlooville Residents Assn
· Emsworth Residents Assn
· Warblington & Denvilles Residents Assn
· Public meeting at Leigh Park
In addition presentations of the proposed options were made to County Councillors and Borough Councillors on 17 July.
What is the role of the Borough Council?
Havant Borough Council has been consulted throughout the review process and has made suggestions for different services and timetable options for which prices were obtained by means of the competitive tender process.
Havant Borough Council do have the option of financially supporting service 22 or other services or particular journeys if they so wished.
How does Hampshire County Council view public transport in view of the decision to withdraw service 22?
Hampshire County Council has worked closely with Havant Borough Council and local bus operators in Havant to attract extra bus passengers through Quality Bus Partnerships such as on the Zip corridor along the A3, on routes 21, 23 and 700 and shortly on routes 37, 39 and 40.
New bus stops, shelters, easy access raised kerbs and shelters, together with new buses and increased frequencies have succeeded in increasing the number passengers travelling by bus in Havant. The new bus station will also make the bus a more attractive choice.
Travel patterns and bus use change over time and as some routes become more popular, others become less well used. Passenger use on service 22 has decreased so that what was a commercially viable service a few years ago has required sharply increasing financial support. With bus industry costs rising many times ahead of inflation, Hampshire County Council is reviewing passenger transport services to ensure that residents have a transport network that best matches their needs and is sustainable.
Investing in Quality Bus Partnerships and infrastructure, such as the new bus station and bus stops, helps attract more passengers to use public transport. Examining the pattern of routes, the frequency of timetable provided, and whether a bus or other means of transport is most appropriate are the means by which Hampshire County Council ensures that its residents have passenger transport services which reflect their changing needs.
Bus service 22 would no longer run
20,000 passenger trips a year will be affected, where passengers may need to change to another bus to reach their destination. Of the 20,000 some will have the additional alternative of walking of another bus stop slightly further away than their present stop.
Service 22 was operated without subsidy until May 2005. The cost of supporting service 22 would rise by 58% to £73,000 compared to the cost to June 2006.
Housing Development
The development at the former Proctor & Gamble factory site in Dunsbury Way is for warehousing, a health centre and 264 residential units. There is a signed S106 agreement in existence, but there is no funding available for Passenger Transport.
The "Section 106" agreement secures funding for a cycleway but nothing for funding bus services or bus infrastructure.
The consultant's "Transport Assessment Report" dated Nov 04 lists bus services that pass near the site and notes that service 22 is hourly (at that time, service 22 was operated commercially by Stagecoach, and was indeed hourly). However, Service 22 is only a small proportion of the total number of buses per hour. In fact, there are 10 QBP route buses in each direction per hour.
Dunsbury Way has QBP routes 21 and 23 along the whole length and service 22 and 39 along the southern end only.
The housing development site of 29 homes near Park Parade is being dealt with by Havant Borough Council as agents, but the scale of development is unlikely to impact on bus services.
The developments at Park House Farm Way and Woolston Road, which are more substantial in nature (c200 homes in total) are likely to contribute funding via S106, but there is no certainty at present. The Woolston Road development (c120 homes) however, is actually on service 23 route (6 buses per hour).