A study into Transport and Accessibility in Balsham

A STUDY INTO TRANSPORT AND ACCESSIBILITY IN BALSHAM, SOUTH CAMBRIDGESHIRE

December 2005

Alison Bourne Care Network Old School House Green End Comberton Cambridge CB3 7DY

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

1 A study into Transport and Accessibility in Balsham

1. Background

Accessibility mapping by Cambridgeshire County Council has identified Balsham as the least accessible ward in South Cambridgeshire because of the length of time it takes to access health, education and leisure/social activities by public transport. However, Balsham ward covers a number of parishes. The paper entitled “Analysis of Balsham” produced by the County Council outlines the difference between the settlements north of the A1307 and those along and to the South of the A1307 in terms of ease of travelling by public transport. Therefore, in terms of accessibility, the village of Balsham and the nearby villages of West Wickham, West Wratting and Weston Colville have the poorest access.

These villages are located approximately 10 miles South East of Cambridge but are also only a few miles from the market towns of Haverhill and Newmarket, both of which are in Suffolk. A number of services are located in these towns, and a smaller number can be found in the village of Linton, which is 4 miles South of Balsham.

Having identified these four villages, along with some very small settlements such as Carlton and Weston Green, as having the poorest access, a meeting was organised in Balsham in May 2005 looking predominantly at the issues facing bus users in Balsham. As a result of this, a further public meeting was organised for September 2005 for residents of Balsham, West Wickham, Weston Colville and West Wratting. Notes of this meeting are available. The meeting was well attended but parents of children and young people themselves were under-represented.

The Accessibility Strategy is concentrating on 3 key groups: young people, single parents and the elderly. The first two groups were not well- represented at the public meeting and whilst there were a number of older residents present, these were perhaps the more mobile.

I have therefore undertaken further work to try to ascertain whether there are particular issues of accessibility for these groups of people.

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1.1 Population information for the villages concerned (data source: census 2001)

Balsham ward has a resident population of 4465, of whom 25.4% are under the age of 19 and 14.2% are over 65.

For the villages in the study area the breakdown is as follows:

● Balsham no. %age resident population 1641 - residents aged 0-19 430 26.2 residents aged 16 – 24 137 8.4 residents aged 60 + 352 21.5 residents aged 75 + 129 7.9

● West Wickham resident population 423 - residents aged 0-19 127 30 residents aged 16 – 24 29 6.9 residents aged 60 + 68 16.1 residents aged 75 + 13 3.1

● West Wratting resident population 436 - residents aged 0-19 97 22.2 residents aged 16 – 24 28 6.4 residents aged 60 + 98 22.5 residents aged 75 + 24 5.5

● Weston Colville resident population 424 - residents aged 0-19 106 25 residents aged 16 – 24 38 9 residents aged 60 + 81 19.1 residents aged 75 + 17 4

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2. Local Transport

2.1 public transport in the area There are no train stations in the area under consideration. The nearest train stations are at Dullingham, Audley End and Whittlesford. The only public transport available from the villages therefore is buses. bus services: Balsham – Cambridge – Balsham There are 2 main bus services from Haverhill to Cambridge via Balsham and the other villages in the area. The no. 16 service is operated by Burton’s and the no. 44 service is operated by Stagecoach. On weekdays there are 3 buses (at 06:43, 07:34 and 07:50) which arrive in Cambridge before 9am. These are the 44 service. After 9am the service is the no. 16. There are a further 5 buses into Cambridge, the last one leaving Balsham at 16.54 and arriving in Cambridge at 17.39. From Cambridge to Balsham, the first bus (a no.16) leaves at 08.55 arriving in Balsham at 09.40. There are 5 no.16 buses between 08:55 and 15:40. The route is then operated by Stagecoach as the no.4, with buses leaving Cambridge at 16.25, 17.15 and 18.05.

On Saturdays there are 7 buses into Cambridge, the earliest being at 07:50 and the latest at 16:54. 6 buses return from Cambridge, the earliest at 08.55 and the latest at 18.05

I have been provided with ridership figures for the no 16 service. These show that on a typical day 22 single journeys were made to or from the four villages. Most journeys started from or ended in Balsham. No passengers got on or off the bus in Weston Colville. However, the no 16 service is not the service into Cambridge from these villages in the morning – that is the no 44 service, for which I don’t have figures. bus services: Balsham -Haverhill - Balsham The no 16 and no 44 services originate and end in Haverhill. There are 6 buses per weekday from Balsham to Haverhill. However, the earliest bus leaves Balsham at 09:35, arriving in Haverhill at 10:13, and the last bus from Haverhill leaves at 14:20, arriving in Balsham at 14:54. bus services: Balsham – Newmarket - Balsham There is one bus per day (no 46) to Newmarket, operated by Burtons. This arrives in Newmarket at 10am and there is a return bus at 1pm.

There are no buses to or from the area on a Sunday.

There are no buses between Carlton and Cambridge, but the no.46/no.904 service from Brinkley to Newmarket runs through Carlton. This is operated by Burton’s and provides 9 buses to Newmarket and back per weekday. The earliest arrives in Newmarket at 8.30 and the last bus leaves Newmarket at 18.25, arriving in Carlton at 19.01.

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2.2 community transport in the area The area is served by two Dial-a-Ride (DAR) schemes; 3CT based in Haverhill and Cambridge Dial-a-Ride. The Cambridge DAR service operates a radial service in outlying villages, i.e. the minibus goes from Cambridge, through the villages and back to Cambridge. I spoke to the operations manager at Cambridge DAR who said that there is a slot for the minibus to go though Linton and Balsham – and the relevant other villages – on the second Wednesday of every month, but that in fact at present there is no take-up of the service. The scheme used to have one passenger from Linton but that person stopped using the service some time ago. The operations manager thought that a possible reason for poor take-up was the fact that the service is not frequent enough. Should more people want to use it the service could possibly be more frequent, but given that no one is using it at the moment it is not possible to start a more frequent service in the hope that someone will use it. It is also possible that residents do not want to go to Cambridge. When I spoke to elderly and less mobile residents, they did not talk about Cambridge as being a destination they wanted to access. Instead, they more frequently spoke of Newmarket or Haverhill as being desirable destinations.

The 3CT scheme is used in Balsham by the Sheltered Housing Scheme on a monthly basis to take residents to destinations such as Newmarket, or to a garden centre and so on. I spoke to the manager of 3CT who said that no one in the Balsham area uses the Dial-a-ride service. This is possibly because of the very active Community Car scheme in Balsham (see below). Also, as the 3CT scheme does not have drivers in Balsham itself, residents from the area using a 3CT driver would have to pay the “dead” miles travelled by the driver, thus making the trip much more expensive.

At the public meeting, and as subsequently discussed by the LSP T&A group, there was a feeling that part of the low-usage of DAR schemes is the lack of knowledge about them, and that more publicity is needed to raise the profile of the schemes. As far as I am aware, this has not yet taken place.

The “Helping Hands” social car scheme operating in Balsham is the primary form of community transport in the area. The scheme is very active, with nearly 30 drivers making approximately 400 journeys in the year April 04 – April 05. In the period April 05 – October 05 the scheme made 272 journeys, of which 167 were for medical (non-hospital) journeys and there were 12 trips to Addenbrookes. The scheme also picks up prescriptions from the Health Centre in Linton and takes them to Balsham PO for collection. As some drivers don’t always claim the subsidy from CCC the real figure of completed journeys is probably somewhat higher.

Helping Hands covers the villages of Balsham, West Wickham, West Wratting but not Weston Colville. I spoke to the Chair of Helping Hands who said that the scheme was willing to extend its service to the village of

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Weston Colville but only if Weston Colville could provide two voluntary drivers. At the point of speaking to her she was still waiting for two drivers from Weston Colville to come forward.

2.3 private transport In the ward of Balsham as a whole, 90.4% of households have at least one car. This is slightly higher than the figure for South Cambs which is 86.7%.

There is also a local taxi service based in Balsham.

3. Access to services

3.1 Health The nearest medical centre is in Linton. However there is no bus service between Linton and Balsham. I spoke to the practice manager at Linton Health Centre who said that she was not aware of residents from the four villages being unable to access health provision because of transport. The GPs are aware of the Helping Hands scheme and know that those without transport can be brought to the surgery. I also spoke to a Health Visitor who covers the area. She said that she knew transport could be a problem for some people but that she didn’t think that mothers of babies and young children had particular problems. There is no dentist in Balsham but there is an NHS dentist in Linton as well as an optician. Further dentists, opticians and other health services can be found in Haverhill and Newmarket.

There is a small cottage hospital in Newmarket but for most hospital services the nearest hospital is at Addenbrookes. Several residents commented that there is no direct bus service to Addenbrookes from the area.

3.2 Education There is a playgroup in West Wickham and a pre-school in Balsham, both taking children from 2.5 years to school age. The primary school in Balsham serves all the villages in the area. For those living within catchment but not within Balsham itself there is a school bus to transport the children. The nearest secondary school is Linton Village College (LVC) in Linton, and again there are school buses for children in the vicinity. As LVC has no sixth form, for post-16 education children travel to Hills Road 6th Form College, Long Road Sixth Form College or Cambridge Regional College. I was told that there is a dedicated bus for those on courses at CRC. There is one bus per day (the no. 44 service from Balsham at 7.50am) to the Sixth Form colleges in Long Road and Hills Road, arriving at approximately 8.30am. However, this does not travel through West Wickham so students from there presumably have to make alternative arrangements. There are no buses from Carlton to Cambridge.

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I spoke to the Inclusion Manager at LVC about whether transport had a bearing on the decisions made by pupils when choosing what to do after leaving the college. He was not aware that it made a difference, but said it might. The Connexions Youth Worker might have more information about this, but so far I have been unable to speak to her. Other residents I spoke to suggested that possibly more students stayed on in further education because they could access this by bus rather than try to find employment. However, I have no firm evidence of this.

There is community education provision at Linton Village College, but no public transport to access it from the villages in the study area.

3.3 Work (NB access to work was not one of the factors looked at by the original mapping exercise, but it was raised by many people I spoke to and so is included here) According to the 2001 census, only 6 people in the Balsham ward were in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance. 5 of these fall into the over 24 age groups. Of these, only one had claimed Job Seekers Allowance for more than 6 months. I do not know if any of these people live in the study area as the figures are for the whole ward. I have spoken to the Job Centre to try to gain more up-to-date figures and to see if transport has played a factor in people’s ability to find work, but figures are not available for such small areas, only for Travel-to-work areas, which are much greater.

The majority of working residents travel to work by car, motorbike or van. Very few use public transport for work. The table below shows the usage of public transport by workers in the area on a parish basis:

Parish No. of people No. travelling to work percentage in employment by public transport aged 16-74 Balsham 823 54 6.6

West Wickham 205 10 4.9

West Wratting 218 13 6

Weston Colville 230 18 7.8

The average distance to work travelled in these communities is 21.4 km.

I spoke to some residents who did travel to work by public transport, including the bus representative for Balsham. The comments made reflected those made at the public meeting, namely that the journey times are too long (approximately one hour to Cambridge) and the bus service is not reliable. It is not possible to reach some areas by public transport Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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to work. I spoke to one resident who doesn’t drive, who said she would like to look for work in Newmarket but could not do so as the bus timetables don’t allow for it. It is also impossible to reach Haverhill directly from any of the villages before 9am, or to return after 14.20. Therefore for those reliant on public transport, work opportunities are limited to either very local jobs or to Cambridge. Additionally, it would be almost impossible to undertake shift work. A parish councillor I spoke to in West Wickham said that at least one family had moved out of the village because they were reliant on public transport and could not manage to access work whilst living in West Wickham.

I spoke to the adult branch of Connexions who said that they don’t keep statistics on transport issues, but that in their experience the adults accessing their service tended to have available transport.

3.4 Shopping Balsham has a village shop with Post Office, and a butcher’s. Weston Colville also has a shop and Post Office and West Wickham has a part- time post office. There is no shop in West Wratting. A mobile shop visits Balsham twice per week, but I do not have any information about whether it visits the other villages in the area. I spoke to some elderly residents in Balsham who said that they relied on the mobile shop for much of their shopping. The nearest supermarkets are in Haverhill, Newmarket and Fulbourn, Cambridge. The 16 and 44 services go to Tesco at Fulbourn. In the Haverhill direction, the 16 service stops at Sainsburys. However, people are very unlikely to use public transport for supermarket shopping unless they have no choice, as it is not particularly practical. For other general shopping – clothes, household goods and so on residents have to travel to the nearby towns.

3.5 Town centre activity The majority of people I spoke to raised the journey time to Cambridge by bus as an issue. Most frequently mentioned was the fact that the Balsham to Cambridge bus now takes a longer route – and therefore an increased time – in order to travel through Teversham and Cherry Hinton. Many people pointed out that the easiest way to decrease journey time to Cambridge would be to shorten the bus route so that it is more direct. Bus users thought more people might use the bus if the route was more direct, i.e. Balsham – Fulbourn (Tesco) – Cambridge City Centre. There are no evening services to Cambridge from Balsham, and no Sunday service. Pupils at LVC particularly commented this on. Some people, especially parents of schoolchildren and older schoolchildren themselves, said that the buses back from Cambridge were too early, and that they would like a late service. This echoes what was expressed at the public meeting.

Both Haverhill and Newmarket can be accessed in a shorter journey time than Cambridge, but not at peak times and not in the evenings. There is a sports centre in Haverhill but this can only be accessed by public transport during the day. There are also sports facilities which are open to the public at LVC, but there is no public transport to LVC.

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3.6 Other services Clearly Newmarket, Haverhill and Cambridge provide a range of services but there are also some outreach and satellite services in Linton. These include the health centre and the library. There is also a mobile library that visits Balsham, West Wickham and West Wratting (although not Weston Colville). However, the mobile library only comes fortnightly and is during the day. The library at Linton is open until 8pm two evenings per week and is open on Saturday mornings.

The Citizens Advice Bureau has a weekly advice surgery in Linton Village Hall, and Connexions offers adult careers advice on alternate Wednesdays in Linton. Directions Plus, a disability advice organisation, has an advice session weekly, and Camtad (for those with hearing impairment) and Camsight (for those with visual impairment) run monthly groups in Linton. I spoke to the rural development worker for Camsight who told me that their group does include people from the Balsham area, and that they are dependent on volunteers (possibly from Helping Hands) to bring the group members to the meetings. As there is no bus service between Linton and Balsham, in order to access these services those without their own transport rely on friends, family or the Helping Hands scheme.

Balsham does have a Community Access Point (CAP). I spoke to the co- ordinator for the CAP who told me that she didn’t have any users from other villages, only from Balsham. She did not know if this was because of transport issues.

4. Impact of poor accessibility

4.1 young people I spoke with the Youth Worker for the area and arranged to meet students from the 4 villages at Linton Village College (LVC) to talk with them about their experiences of transport. I also distributed a short questionnaire, of which 17 completed copies were returned (see page 16).

All the students I spoke to used the school bus service to get to school. As the school buses return home immediately after school, students staying for after-school activities rely on parents to get home. All the students I spoke to had parents who drove. However, many of them spoke of there being a gap between an after-school activity ending and their parents being able to pick them up, often because their parents were working. Some students told me that they sometimes had to wait around for up to 2 hours after their after-school club had finished so that a parent could pick them up.

There is no Youth Club in Balsham or the other villages in the study area. There are Youth Clubs in Linton, Shudy Camps and Abington. The Youth Worker said that a number of children from the four villages attended one Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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or other of these youth clubs, particularly the one in Shudy Camps. In the questionnaires, four students said that they were unable to get to Youth Club either some or all of the time because of lack of transport. Another student said that she had been unable to go to a gym club she’d wanted to attend as there was no-one to take her or pick her up. In conversation, many of the students mentioned Youth Club as something which they enjoyed attending and expressed the view that they would like a Youth Club in Balsham. According to some students there had been a Youth Club in the past, but it had closed. The Youth Worker said that she would be willing to work with the village/ villages to help start a youth club if that’s what the villages wanted to do.

I asked the students if they felt that lack of transport restricted their social life, or if they thought it might influence what they do in the way of post-16 education, and if they thought transport would restrict their choice of future employment.

● 11 thought that transport problems currently restrict their social life. ● 10 thought that their choice of post 16 education would be influenced by availability of transport. ● 11 thought that their choice of future employment would be restricted by availability of transport, with one thinking that it might be.

This group had the highest use of public transport, with 16 of the 17 students using public buses, mostly to go into Cambridge. In the questionnaires, 7 of the students said that they would like buses to be more frequent. 6 students also said that they would like there to be buses on Sundays. In conversation, more agreed with this. 3 questionnaires mentioned “Cineworld” in Cambridge as a destination they wanted to access; again in conversation afterwards more students said that they would like to get to the Leisure Park in Cambridge at weekends.

The students also felt that there are not enough bus stops and so sometimes they had to walk a long way to get to a stop (something which was also mentioned by parents of primary school children). Another complaint was the lack of shelter at the stop itself “As the bus stop is also used to go into Cambridge the bus shelter is always taken up by older people so we stand outside freezing”. Reliability of buses was also mentioned.

One student said that the school bus is too early, and that pupils from the area arrive at school half an hour before they need to.

The health visitor at the health centre in Linton said that there were possibly issues for teenagers who might want to access health services and information about, for example, contraception or drugs, without involving their parents. When I visited LVC I found that there is a confidential service for young people at the Youth Centre within the college, including a weekly session with a nurse where LVC students are able to see a nurse in confidence. It may be that most young people of school age have access to these services.

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Many parents I spoke to, and some respondents of the questionnaire which I circulated at the primary school spoke of the difficulty of students at 6th form colleges in Cambridge being unable to return home during the day. As the 6th form timetable is quite flexible, not all students have classes in the afternoon, but they are unable to return home during the day because there are no buses.

One pupil I spoke to said that her older sister had a Saturday job in Cambridge which didn’t start until 10am, but she had to go into Cambridge at 7.30 and wait around until she could start work. Another student said that his brother had to leave work a few minutes early each day in order to catch the last bus home.

Conclusion This group uses buses on a daily basis to access education. It is also the group which relies most heavily on public transport for access to social activities. However, parents also tend to drive their children around a lot. This age group perceives that their future choices about further education and employment may be affected by public transport. I have been unable to speak to the Connexions worker and so am unable to say whether this is also the reality for them. They do, however, have restrictions on their social life because of lack of public transport.

Possible next steps:  To explore the possibility of buses arriving and leaving the 6th form colleges at midday.

 To explore the starting of a Youth Club in Balsham or to explore providing transport from the area to one of the nearby Youth Clubs, eg Shudy Camps.

 To explore the provision of a Sunday service from the 4 villages to Cambridge.

 To explore the provision of weekend buses to Cambridge Leisure Park as well as the City centre.

 To increase the number of bus stops so that no-one has to walk more than a certain distance (half a mile?) to access the bus. Additionally, shelters could be provided at key bus stops. This would also benefit other bus users, particularly older people.

4.2 single parents In order to ascertain the issues facing single parents in the area I surveyed a range of parents as I felt that the issues facing all parents of young children, whether single or not, were probably similar.

I attended a “parent and baby” group and a music group for preschoolers in Balsham. I distributed questionnaires to the parents I met and

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received 17 completed ones back (see page 17). All but one of the parents had access to a car, and that parent had occasional access. The parent with only occasional access said that she had problems accessing all the normal services, to such an extent that she was trying to move to a village with more services and better transport. This was despite having lived in Balsham all her life.

In conversation, several parents (7) mentioned the difficulty of access on the bus with buggies and young children. This is not necessarily confined to buses without easy access. One mother told me of an occasion when she had used a low-floor bus so that she could wheel a buggy on, only to be told by the driver that she had to transfer her child out of the buggy and fold the buggy up. Some other parents said that they had had a similar experience. One parent wrote that “buses for parents of young children are hard work. Children need a lot of extra time and extra baggage”.

The frequency of buses was cited as a problem. As many of the parents I spoke with had older children at playgroup or school, they felt that there was not sufficient time to get into Cambridge or the nearer market towns and back again before needing to collect older children. 6 respondents also commented on the unreliability of buses. “I can’t risk being stranded in Cambridge with a two year old” was one parent’s comment.

One person I spoke to said that a weekly baby clinic used to be run in the village hall, where a health visitor would weigh the babies and talk to the parents about any problems. However, this service was discontinued. Although almost all the parents I talked to had cars and could therefore attend the health centre in Linton for the service, if a baby clinic was reinstated in Balsham it is highly likely that parents would use this rather than travelling to Linton.

I also spoke with the head teacher at The Meadow Primary School in Balsham, who arranged for the distribution of 200 questionnaires to parents at the school. The head teacher has not had any experience of parents being unable to attend school events because of lack of transport. I received 72 completed questionnaires, with 61 of these being from parents within the study area (see page 19). Only one of the respondents is without full-time use of a car, and very few said that they had any problem accessing services. Comments made about public transport were similar to those made by the pre-school parents, with the (in)frequency of buses and poor timetabling seen as being a problem, followed by the unreliability of the services and the long journey times.

Conclusion The vast majority of parents in the four villages do not have a problem accessing services as they have use of a car. The number of parents without a car is probably very small. It may be that the “Helping Hands” scheme could be used by parents without transport to attend toddler groups and so on. The Cambridge Dial-a-Ride bus theoretically could be accessed by this group to get to Cambridge on a monthly basis. In

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reality, however, the timing may make this impractical for passengers with school-aged children, as they would have to return home by the end of school.

The one parent without transport I spoke to relied on family and friends to get to the GP, supermarket and so on. It may be that the only people without transport are those who have family and other strong ties to the area – those without transport are unlikely to choose to live in a village with poor public transport and accessibility.

Possible next steps:  To explore whether parents of young children who don’t have transport can use Helping Hands and to raise awareness of other types of CT amongst this group

 To explore the possibility of a baby clinic being re-established in Balsham.

4.3 Older people I spoke to the manager of the sheltered housing scheme in Balsham and to the Age Concern mobile warden who covers all the villages in the area. Both of them said that the elderly people they were in contact with used either family or Helping Hands to access essential services. I spoke to the Parish clerk at Weston Colville, to the vicar for the area, to the Mobile Warden and to a parish councillor for Weston Colville who also attends the Weston Colville over 60s group. None of them were aware of any older residents who had problems accessing services because of lack of transport.

Despite its size, there is no over-60s group in Balsham. I was told that there had been one but it folded a few years ago. However, there are a number of events for older people at the community room at the Sheltered Housing scheme. I attended a coffee morning at the Sheltered Housing Scheme in Balsham and spoke with the 17 people present about their experiences of transport. Most of those present were residents of the scheme, although the morning is open to all elderly residents in Balsham. Many of the people I spoke to go on the monthly Dial-a-Ride (3CT) outing organised by the scheme manager. However, none of them used the Dial-a-Ride service for anything else and didn’t seem very clear about other forms of DAR service. Some of them got lifts with family members when they needed to go to the GP or shopping. 8 used the Helping Hands Scheme to go to the GP ; slightly more used them to go to Addenbrookes. Two people used Helping Hands to visit relatives in other villages. As one person put it “we’d be lost without Helping Hands”.

Nearly all those I spoke to used the mobile shop, which comes to Balsham twice per week, and many of them also used the village shop, Post Office and butcher.

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Some of them use buses, but many have restricted mobility. A few people said that they would use the bus more if it was more reliable and if they could access it more easily. One lady said that the bus to Newmarket is always a low-floored one, but the one coming back is always a coach, which she can’t use because of the steep steps. The comment was made by more than one person that they would like to use buses if they could because it keeps them active and independent.

Some people said that there is too much waiting time at Newmarket – they would like to go by bus but there is a four hour gap between getting there and getting home. A few people said that they would like to access the Health centre in Linton by bus because they don’t like to have to ask for lifts there all the time.

Several people complained about the lack of a visiting chiropodist, and the scheme manager confirmed that this was a problem for many elderly people in the scheme and in the wider village. Apparently an NHS chiropodist used to visit but this service was discontinued. There is a private one who visits Balsham but this is beyond the means of some residents.

Conclusion Overall, because of the very active Helping Hands scheme, elderly people in the area do not seem to have particular problems accessing services. The scheme has a healthy number of volunteers and seems to be well known amongst elderly residents. However, many elderly people value their independence and would prefer to use a bus if possible, at least some of the time.

Possible next steps:

 As outlined above, by supporting Helping Hands in extending its remit to Weston Colville, the number of elderly people who are unable to access services would be reduced still further.

 Older people are more interested in travelling to the smaller towns of Newmarket and Haverhill, especially on market days. Consideration should be given to ensuring that the buses between the villages and towns are easily accessible to those with restricted mobility.

 Dial-a- ride services are very underused in this area. It may be that older people could use the DAR to access Newmarket and Haverhill. However, from next April older people will be entitled to free travel by public transport and yet will have to pay for the DAR service.

 The re-instatement of a visiting NHS chiropodist would address the problems faced by those in need of this service.

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5. Other points arising from my research

Some people to whom I spoke stressed that the very last thing they would want is a “shuttle bus” from Balsham to Linton. They are fearful that if a service of some kind is introduced between the villages in the study area and Linton then the direct bus to Cambridge and Haverhill will be withdrawn. This would leave residents in a worse position than they are in currently. If a “shuttle” bus is introduced this needs to be in addition to the direct services provided. A link bus to Linton is not seen as a priority by certain groups. Young people, for example, would much rather see more frequent services to Cambridge, running into the evening, than a bus to Linton. If the direct bus was withdrawn so that passengers changed buses at Linton to access Haverhill and Cambridge, this would increase journey times and reduce accessibility.

I spoke to a number of residents who did not fit into the 3 priority categories. The key points raised by them were, much as at the public meeting, the length of journey time into Cambridge and the reliability of the buses.

Overall, few people in the area have a problem accessing services as private car ownership is high. The bus service in the area therefore has been reduced because of lack of passengers. Consequently, there is real hardship for the few without cars, but numbers are very small.

6. Further action

In addition to the possible next steps raised in section 4, I would also suggest that the following be taken into consideration when developing an action plan.

 One of the biggest issues when looking at reduced accessibility to town centre services is journey time. The bus journey time to Cambridge would be reduced if the section of the bus route around Fulbourn/Teversham was removed. I would strongly urge consideration being given to this. I understand from my conversations with parish councillors and residents in Balsham and other villages that the reason the Fulbourn/Teversham route was added in was because the service was merged with another bus route to increase efficiency. However, all those I spoke to felt that it had the negative effect of putting people off using the service as journey times had increased because of it.

 Many people expressed the view that there should be more direct buses to different parts of the city – for example, buses that go directly to Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Addenbrookes throughout the day, also taking in the 6th Form colleges in Long Road and Hills Road. Again, this would significantly reduce journey times and improve accessibility.

 There is a lack of knowledge of bus timetables and of Community Transport. Many people I spoke to had little or no awareness of bus times or routes. As all of the villages concerned have a parish or village magazine, information about bus services and Community Transport could be disseminated here. Several people I spoke to said that regular buses are much easier to remember than irregular ones, e.g. if there is always a bus at ten-past the hour from Balsham to Cambridge. However, to achieve this would mean a big increase in bus services.

 The lack of faith in the bus service also needs to be addressed – many people, especially parents of young children, are not prepared to use the service because of fears of being stranded. The unreliability of the bus service was cited as a factor in non-use by a significant number of people. It is clear that, whatever the reality is, and whatever the percentage of buses running to time, the perception amongst residents is that it is unreliable. Incentives to encourage bus use in the area, coupled with ensuring the bus is running as scheduled may go some way to address this.

Alison Bourne Care Network December 2005

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Results of questionnaire to Linton Village College students (17 responses)

Where do you live? Balsham 8 West Wickham 3 West Wratting 3 Weston Colville 2 Carlton 1

How do you travel to school? car 0

bus 17 cycle 0

Do you have problems getting yes 6 home if you stay for after-school no 11 activities? (nb all those who stayed for afterschool clubs said they were collected by parents)

Do you ever use a bus to get Yes 16 elsewhere? No 1 If so, where? Cambridge 13 Haverhill 6 Newmarket 3 Other 1 “Town” 2 (unspecified) Are there some social activities Yes 5 you can’t go to because you can’t no 12 get there? Do you think that transport Yes 5 problems restrict your social life? No 12 Do you think transport problems Yes 11 may influence your choice of No 6 what to do or which course to take after leaving Linton Village College? Do you think transport problems Yes 11 may restrict your choice of future No 5 employment? + 1 “maybe”

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Other comments:

 4 students had problems getting to youth club because of transport  1 student was unable to go to a gym club she wanted to attend because there was no transport and her parents couldn’t take her  7 students said that buses were late or unreliable  6 students wanted a Sunday bus service  4 students wanted hourly buses to Cambridge  3 students wanted buses to Cineworld Cambridge  4 students said that there are not enough bus stops and not enough shelter  7 students wanted more frequent buses

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Results of questionnaires distributed to pre-school parents at Balsham Baby and Toddler group and at the “Tuneful Tots” music group in Balsham.

17 questionnaires were completed.

Where do you live? Balsham 13 West Wratting 3 West Wickham 2 Weston Colville 0 Carlton 0 Do you have access to a car during Yes 16 the day? No 1 (occasional access) Do you have problems getting to any Yes No of these services?  GP 1 16 Hospital 1 16 supermarket 1 16 children’s 1 16 activities 1 16 social activities 1 16  work 1 16  other Do you use a bus? If so, where do you go?

 11 people never use buses from Balsham, although 5 of these do use the Park and Ride service  5 people use the bus service into Cambridge, some of these only occasionally Where would you like to go to on a Not interested 3 bus? Cambridge 9

Haverhill 1 Linton Health 4 Centre Newmarket 2 Hospital 1 Saffron Walden 1 Supermarket 1 What puts you off using a bus? Poor timetabling, 12 infrequent buses Unreliability 6 Difficult access 3 Journey time 6 Poor driving 1 Inconvenience 1

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Other comments:

 A buggy-friendly bus and driver would help  I can’t afford to get stranded in Cambridge with a two year old  I’d like to use the bus for ecological reasons, but over an hour is too long a journey into Cambridge with two young children  buses regularly seem to break down  I’ve never used the bus because I’ve heard horror stories about it being cancelled on the way back to Balsham

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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Results of questionnaire distributed to primary school parents via the Meadow Primary School, Balsham

200 questionnaires were distributed, 72 were returned.

Of these, 61 questionnaires were from parents living in the study area, and these results are collated below.

Where do you live? Balsham 37 West Wratting 6 West Wickham 10 Weston Colville 7 Carlton 1 Do you have access to a car during Yes 60 the day? No 1 – sometimes Do you have problems with Yes 4 transport if your children stay for No 57 after-school clubs? Do you have problems accessing any  GP 0 of these services because of lack of  Hospital 0 transport  Other health service 0  social activities 1  children’s out-of-school 2 activities  Library 0  Sports facilities 1

Does anyone in your household use Yes 23 a bus? no 38

If so, where to? Park and Ride 18 bus Cambridge 14 Haverhill 1 Other 0 Where would you like to access by public transport and when? This question was answered in various ways, the main results were:

 10 people said they would like to go to Cambridge  4 people said they wanted to go to Linton  4 people wanted an evening bus service to Cambridge  One person wanted more 6th form college buses  3 people wanted to go to Saffron Walden

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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What puts you off using public Unreliability 16 transport? Poor timetabling/ 24 infrequent buses Journey time 6 Inconvenience 6 Distance to bus 2 stop Doesn’t go where wanted 2 Other bus users 2 Bus drivers 2 Expense 1 Lack of shelter at 1 stop Dirty bus 1 Other comments made were:

 Buses need to be every hour to be useful  services need to be regular, frequent and dependable to engender universal and greater use.  I would always take the bus… if the route was direct and the buses ran frequently  My children would like to do more sport but there is a lack of transport  I have to drive my daughter to the bus stop because there are no footpaths or streetlights near the bus stop and nowhere she can leave her bike  My child sometimes misses swimming lessons because my husband is using the car  I hardly ever use the bus – the service is sparse, unreliable and timetable information is poor  One family found it difficult to attract an au pair because s/he would be too isolated without transport

Care Network, Registered Charity 1041524

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