Archived decisions

Contact: Tony Smale, ext 6926 email: [email protected]

Alison Hull, ext 6926 email:[email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report:

(i) sets out the Eastleigh area review process;

(ii) details the outcome of tenders for local bus services in the Eastleigh tendering area (Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford, Hedge End, Hamble and Bishops Waltham/Meon Valley areas); and

(iii) proposes a plan of action that ensures value for money and seeks to maintain transport services which give access to employment, education, health, retail and leisure facilities for the widest section of the community, so enhancing well-being.

2. Recommendation

2.1 That approval be given to accept tenders for new four-year bus subsidy contracts resulting in the following service changes, most of which will take effect from September 2007, but some of which will be introduced earlier as the opportunity arises:

(i) Solent Blue Line Red Rocket A, Hamble-Netley-Hedge End-Eastleigh. Sunday services will revert to two hourly. The service has been hourly since February 2007, prior to that date it had been two hourly for many years;

(ii) First service 8A, Lords Hill-Southampton-West End. This frequent service will be extended into Hedge End using developer contributions from new housing at Dowds Farm, for a period of four years to establish whether it can become self-supporting;

(iii) Solent Blue Line service 6, Boorley Green-Hedge End-Southampton. Options for the Boorley Green-Hedge End section have been examined and it is proposed that service 6 be combined with service 29 providing through journeys to Southampton;

(iv) Solent Blue Line service 17. This service to be operated by Brijan and will incorporate an afternoon school service at considerable cost saving;

(v) Solent Blue Line service 29. Operation passes to First who will use low-floor accessible vehicles;

(vi) Solent Blue Line services 49/49A/49B. Low-floor accessible vehicles to be introduced;

(vii) Solent Blue Line school service 507. Times adjusted to suit school;

(viii) Barfoot & Sons school service 85. This lightly-used service has been withdrawn and replaced by a contracted minibus; and

(ix) Brijan school service A2. This afternoon-only service will be operated by Stagecoach at considerable cost saving.

3. Background

3.1 Bus industry costs are currently rising ahead of general inflation (at around 8% per annum). By contrast local authority service inflation increases are around 2.5% and due to other irresistible service pressures the County Council decided to reduce bus subsidies by £500,000 (around 8% over two years). This situation is forecast to continue in the next few years and there is some uncertainty over Government revenue funding for bus support. It is important, therefore, that the County Council reviews its current service provision in a comprehensive manner and demonstrates that:

(i) value for money is being achieved;

(ii) subsidy payments are open and transparent;

(iii) spending is undertaken within the context of Local Transport Plan 2 (LTP2) and bus strategy objectives;

(iv) the optimum balance is achieved between conventional and unconventional services; and

(v) the relationship between secured and commercial services achieves the best possible efficiency.

3.2 This should help to ensure that the County Council is in a position to enable a transport network in Hampshire which best matches the needs of its residents, whilst at the same time ensuring that this is affordable within the current and future financial environments.

4. Approach

4.1 The approach has been to undertake an area passenger transport review - one of a series throughout the county, based on district council boundaries - in advance of area tendering. These reviews represent a wide-ranging approach to reviewing and planning passenger transport services in Hampshire.

4.2 The approach being adopted for these reviews embraces a combination of a practical desk-top exercise which uses Accession (Department for Transport accessibility software) and census data as a basis, overlaying this with local technical knowledge and expertise together with survey information.

4.3 Options developed using this approach are scored on how well they enable people to access retail, health, leisure, work and education locations in the area being reviewed. This scoring assesses the options on how well they provide people with the opportunity to travel to these destinations, their frequency and flexibility, together with their ability to offer a friendly and easy-to-use option for people with a range of disabilities, including wheelchair users.

4.4 A critical aspect of the review is the engagement of stakeholders in the process. In Eastleigh this has included bus operators, the Borough Council, parish/town councils, the community transport sector and other key players. The cooperation of the major bus operators is critical to ensure that, where possible, the review considers both those services that are financially supported by the County Council and those that are operated on a wholly commercial basis. Stakeholder engagement has a key role to play both in developing the options and validating the final choice of options.

4.5 This approach is central to the Bus Strategy (an appendix to LTP2) which advocates the importance of identifying those services most likely to achieve greater bus use, as well as areas where social inclusion objectives may best be achieved.

4.6 These elements will form the foundation for any options coming out of the area reviews. They demonstrate a more visionary and flexible approach to providing passenger transport services in Hampshire in the future by:

(i) working in partnership with commercial bus operators to try and maintain the viability and attractiveness of bus services through improving journey times, simpler timetabling, targeted marketing and promotional activities, improved access and better coordination between operators, in order to reverse long term passenger loss; and

(ii) greater and more effective use of `unconventional' transport, such as taxis, community transport, shared cars and demand-responsive services, where conventional services are no longer appropriate.

5. Eastleigh Area Review - Context

5.1 The Eastleigh area group of contracts has been extended to 2 September 2007. Solent Blue Line is the predominant operator with both commercial and contracted routes. Other operators of contracted routes are First and Brijan Tours.

5.2 Taxishare schemes were originally trialled in Eastleigh in 2002, and the two schemes jointly funded by Eastleigh Borough Council have been running successfully since this date.

5.3 Eastleigh Borough is a largely urban area with transport links to Southampton, Winchester, Romsey, Hedge End and Bishops Waltham. Within this area the County Council seeks to complement the commercial network, which operates with a mixture of low-floor accessible buses and high-floor vehicles. Quality Bus Partnership investment in Eastleigh currently focuses on the Winchester-Chandlers Ford-Southampton, Fair Oak-Eastleigh-Southampton and Hamble-Southampton corridors.

5.4 The Eastleigh Area Review covered the area of the Borough Council to facilitate clearer consultation and incorporated both conventional bus services and unconventional services (community transport). The wider tendering area includes parts of Winchester City Council area, and services cross into Southampton City Council and East Hampshire District Council areas.

5.5 In the rural areas around Bishops Waltham and the Meon Valley the services are less frequent and are mostly subsidised and operated by older, high-floor buses.

5.6 Department for Transport accessibility software (Accession) shows that access to employment, education, health and shops is generally very good, with unconventional transport catering for small numbers of individuals who would otherwise be isolated.

5.7 Eastleigh Borough has fewer no car households than the county average, the third highest proportion commuting by bus and the highest commuting by car.

5.8 A number of factors have affected public transport in the Eastleigh tendering area since tenders were last sought in 2003:

(i) Chandlers Ford railway station opened, giving hourly services to Southampton;

(ii) Solent Blue Line branded all its premium services under the Bluestar and Red Rocket banners, and revised its commercial services, in some cases several times;

(iii) new housing and commercial developments in Eastleigh, Hedge End and Hamble; and

(iv) First service 16 (Southampton-Hamble) was enhanced using contributions from housing and commercial developments.

5.9 In December 2006 Solent Blue Line advised the County Council that cost rises meant the following services were no longer viable in their present form and the company was seeking changes from 18 February 2007, ie before new contracts were due in May 2007. As a result of this the following changes were made:

(i) 29 Hedge End-Southampton - commercial day-time journeys were to be withdrawn. The County Council responded by cutting the poorly used supported evening and Sunday services and using the savings to support a slightly reduced Monday to Saturday day-time service;

(ii) 44 Hiltingbury-Eastleigh/Southampton - commercial sections were cut. The County Council funded an extra peak time journey on service 46 from Southampton to enable workers to get home;

(iii) 45 Hiltingbury-Eastleigh - cut but New Red Rocket services C and D replaced the 44 (in part) and 45, and have provided improved services to South Millers Dale and along the Chestnut Avenue corridor, reflecting opinions expressed locally via the review process and Eastleigh Borough Council's wishes; and

(iv) 49/49A Eastleigh-Winchester - the contracted services were not achieving good value for money. Evening services were withdrawn to provide savings to protect the better used day-time services.

The review and the retendering processes have sought to respond to these developments.

5.10 Eastleigh Borough Council contributes some £65,000 towards the cost of services which mostly fall outside the County Council's eligibility criteria. The current funding allocations are shown below but these are services which will be reviewed by the Borough Council as part of this process:

(i) contributes to the following Hampshire County Council contracts:

- Red Rocket A, certain journeys between Hamble and Eastleigh

- Campbell Road and Chalvington Road taxishare schemes

(ii) manages its own direct contracts, namely:

- Red Rocket C, Sunday service

- Service 7A, Friday/Saturday evening journeys

- Service 16, Butlocks Heath loop (the Council contributes 50%)

- Service 49, Sunday service

- Service 56, Thursday shopperbus

5.11 Community transport provision in the area consists of Dial a Ride, taxi share schemes and a successful hospital taxi scheme. The County Council spends £115,000 per year on community transport services in Eastleigh with additional funding from partners. Officers work in partnership with the Borough Council for funding and delivery.

6. Consultation

6.1 Details of the area review and invitations for suggestions were sent to 55 individuals and organisations throughout Eastleigh (see appendix). On 16 October 2006 a meeting of the Eastleigh Passenger Transport Forum was held to introduce the area review and was well attended. The objectives were set out, ideas invited and suggestions discussed from which a series of options were developed. These options were reported back to a further meeting on 5 December 2006 and additional comment was invited.

6.2 Specific options covered by the Eastleigh review included revision of services between:

(i) Chandlers Ford and Southampton;

(ii) Eastleigh and Winchester; and

(iii) Hedge End and Southampton.

6.3 The following services feature in the Winchester Area Review and consultations have been carried out as part of that review:

(i) 7/7A Southampton-Bishops Waltham;

(ii) 8 Eastleigh-Bishops Waltham;

(iii) 17 Bishops Waltham-Petersfield;

(iv) 43 Eastleigh-Waltham Chase; and

(v) 49/49A Winchester-Eastleigh.

7. Assessing the Options

7.1 Each option was assessed against its ability to provide access to the following facilities (LTP priorities):

(i) employment;

(ii) education - primary, secondary and further;

(iii) health - GP surgeries, health centres and acute hospitals;

(iv) retail - food shopping and one higher level retail; and

(v) leisure.

7.2 Each option is scored against each set of access locations, showing:

(i) opportunity to travel to those destinations;

(ii) frequency and flexibility of service; and

(iii) accessibility and ease of use for those with disabilities.

7.3 For the purpose of this analysis the three divisions of education are assessed separately and their scores combined. Each element has a possible score of 30, so that combined each option has a maximum score of 90. This is factored up to give a score out of 100.

7.4 Opportunity to Travel - the following are assessed:

(i) network coverage of home and destination;

(ii) home within 800 metres of stop, maximum one change; and

(iii) stop within 800 metres of destination.

7.5 Using the approach outlined in Section 4 of this report, four options were considered in addition to the status quo.

7.6 The following table estimates the costs of providing each of the options mentioned above and sets this against the access score achieved. The cost and access score shown is based on the network existing in February 2007. The access score in December 2006 when the review was conducted was 76.

7.7 The above table shows that none of the options offer a better access score than the existing network and produces varying levels of budget savings, with the exception of Option 4 which involves additional cost but would be paid for from developer funding. Although Option 2 achieved a slightly higher access score than Option 1, it was not an option which received support at the consultation stage.

7.8 After the options were developed the principal local bus operator, Solent Blue Line, advised of its intention to make service changes and a reduction in its commercial operation. In response to this, some of the options consulted upon in December 2006 had to be rapidly enacted in February 2007. Funding had to be switched in some cases from evenings and Sundays to formerly commercial day-time journeys. This enabled a larger number of journeys to be protected than might otherwise have been the case. The service pattern put out to tender reflected services in place from February 2007 to minimise inconvenience to passengers through further changes. These service changes are detailed in paragraph 5.9.

8. The Tendering Process and Outcome

8.1 The current contracts for supported services in the Eastleigh tendering area expire on 1 September 2007. A total of 52 bus or coach operators were invited to bid for fresh contracts and 15 of these requested details of the contracts. Of these 15, seven operators actually submitted tenders. These are the incumbent contract holders (Solent Blue Line, First and Brijan Tours) and Stagecoach, AMK, A2B Express Travel and Countryliner. Tenders were received on 19 March 2007.

8.2 Tenders were issued for the February 2007 pattern of services for cost comparison purposes and for other options developed as part of the review process and consultation.

8.3 Unusually, increased competition between operators in this area, compared to both other areas of the county and the last retendering in 2003, has resulted in a lower total cost overall. This increased competition can be attributed to the inclusion of options in the specifications which attracted greater interest.

8.4 The cumulative effect of the changes to services is to achieve an annual saving in excess of £50,000 towards the overall budgetary targets for 2007/08 and 2008/09. Most of the changes will take effect from September 2007, but some will be introduced earlier as the opportunity arises.

9. Impact Assessments

9.1 It is considered that the actions outlined above should not have any detrimental impact on equalities or race discrimination. The area reviews in particular seek to provide journey opportunity to locations for all members of the community. Elderly people form a substantial proportion of bus users. However, the actions outlined are not expected to have a significantly disproportionate adverse effect on elderly or disabled people.

10. Conclusion

10.1 The February 2007 commercial bus service changes were informed by the review options and so influenced the tenders. Overall the combined effect of the area review process and tendering has retained the majority of services in the Eastleigh tendering area. Some services have changed bus operators, some parts of the bus network have been rationalised and there will be one new service between Hedge End and Southampton. Competition between bus companies has kept prices contained within the current budget.

1343Rpt/TS/AJH

APPENDIX

EASTLEIGH AREA REVIEW AND RETENDERING - STAKEHOLDERS

Age Concern Hampshire

Bishopstoke Good Neighbour Scheme, Alain Hunt

Bishopstoke Parish Council, Peter Storey

Botley Parish Council, Janet Morgan

Botley Neighbourhood Scheme, Mrs R Nimmo

Bursledon Good Neighbours, Mike Lane

Bursledon Parish Council, Audrey Eccles

The Bridge Education Centre, the Headteacher

Chandlers Ford Good Neighbours, Pam Beecroft

Club Hampshire, Edwin Ingleton

Crestwood School for Business & Enterprise, the Headteacher

Denise Barlow, Mr J Chestnut, c/o Secretary, Bugle House, 53 Bugle St, Southampton

Eastleigh Borough Council, Councillor David Airey, Councillor Anne Winstanley, Melinda Partner, Ken Dufton, Paul Rollison, Councillor Alan Broadhurst, Councillor Pam Holden-Brown, Councillor Colin Davidovitz, Councillor Keith House, Bruce Tennent, Deepak Gupta, Paul Walker, Vince Johnston

Eastleigh Good Neighbours, Mike Lane, Dennis Littlecott

Eastleigh & Test Valley South PCT

Fair Oak & Horton Heath Parish Council, Cheryl Gosling

Hamble Community Sports College, The Headteacher

Hamble Le Rice Parish Council, Kate Cullen

Hamble Good Neighbours, Mrs Diane Cowan, Chris Webling

Hampshire County Council, Cllr Angela Roling, Cllr Derek Blampied, Cllr Carol Boulton, Jane Graham, Capital Resources Officer

Hedge End Town Council, Kevin Glyn-Davies

Hound Parish Council, Cllr David Airey, Sue Hobbs

Mr Ian Gardner

Hampshire Voluntary Care Group, Jackie Patterson

Patient Transport Services, Chris Lee

Quilley School of Engineering, the Headteacher, Mark Westlake

Solent Blue Line, Phil Stockley

Southampton Central Station, Martin Catchpole

Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce

Thornden School, Dr Sykes

Toynbee School, Kevin Way

Former Uni-Link Manager, John Waugh

West End Parish Council, Cllr John Read, Laura Cooke

Wildern School, the Headteacher, Mrs Hogg

Wyvern Technology College, the Headteacher