TONBRIDGE AND MALLING BOROUGH COUNCIL

PUBLIC TRANSPORT PANEL

Tuesday, 21st March, 2006

Present: Cllr M A C Balfour (Chairman), Cllr R W Dalton, Cllr R A Dorling, Cllr M R Rhodes, Cllr Mrs C M Ridsdill-Smith, Cllr Miss J L Sergison, Cllr Mrs E A Simpson and Cllr D G Still.

Councillors Aikman, Mrs Anderson, Thornewell and Worrall were also present pursuant to Council Procedure Rule No 15.21.

Mr Kings (Kent Association of Parish Councils), Mr Shields (Tonbridge Line Commuters) and Mr Dan Tall (South Eastern Trains).

Apologies were received from Councillors Miss Browne and Chapman and from Norman Kemp of Nu Venture Coaches and James Cook and Kenneth Cobb of Kent County Council.

PART 1 - PUBLIC

PT DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 06/001 Councillor Worrall declared a personal interest in the item on Community Transport Initiatives as Chairman of Age Concern Malling, the operator of 3 mini-buses in a shared community transport initiative with Snodland.

PT MINUTES 06/002 RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Public Transport Panel held on 8 November 2005 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

PT COMMUNITY TRANSPORT INITIATIVES IN KENT AND MEDWAY 06/003 2006

Mr Nigel Whitburn the Kent and Medway Rural Transport Partnership Officer and Kent Community Rail Partnership Officer gave a presentation describing his work for Action with Communities in Rural Kent. He outlined the role of Rural Transport Partnerships and gave examples of Kent schemes funded by small grants from delegated funds. A copy of the presentation would be circulated with the Minutes.

The presentation included a description of different types of community transport that Rural Transport Partnerships could put in place, such as Community Buses, Community Car schemes, a ‘Wheels to Work’ project using mopeds, Taxi buses, Taxi Vouchers, Dial-a Ride

schemes and Rural Transport Wardens.

In discussion, Members expressed support for the Borough Council’s further involvement with Rural Transport Partnerships, gave examples of successful and very oversubscribed community transport schemes, and identified gaps in current provision. It was felt that a community audit of groups running their own transport might reveal considerable potential for mini-bus brokerage schemes to maximise vehicle usage. Members also noted the success of Shopping Needs surveys in establishing the viability of proposed transport schemes.

Mr Whitburn also described the work of the Kent Community Rail Partnerships, indicating that the new rail franchisee, Govia, might seek to form a partnership to cover the Tonbridge to Hastings Line and might also be interested in promoting the station adoption schemes that had been successful elsewhere. He noted that a partnership had been created for the Medway Valley Line and was aiming to improve the access to, and appearance of, stations such as Snodland, New Hythe and Aylesford. Both partnerships would be seeking funding from a variety of sources.

Mr Shields of Tonbridge Line Commuters (TLC) welcomed the possibility of a Tonbridge/Hastings line partnership while emphasising the importance of funding for a full-time co-ordinator of the interests involved. He noted that TLC also aimed to improve connections between Paddock Wood and Tonbridge. Mr Whitburn noted that partnerships would want to take an early opportunity to supply feedback to franchise holders about desired changes to the Integrated Kent Franchise 2009 specification.

Members supported further involvement with Community Rail Partnerships, while observing that the rail operator and Network Rail would have to cooperate if improvements were to be made. The Panel expected that the Borough Council and parish councils would make arrangements to be represented on Partnership steering groups in their areas.

Members were keen to promote knowledge of Rural Transport and Community Rail Partnership schemes within the Borough and invited Mr Whitburn to become a regular member of the Panel and to address the Parish Partnership Panel and the forthcoming West Kent Partnership Conference, as many of those attending would be interested in taking forward the schemes he described.

Members were interested to learn that usage at Snodland Station was nearly enough to justify employment of station staff. It was generally felt that if the number of uncollected fares was included, Snodland, and possibly other stations, might qualify for staffing. Mr Tall of SouthEastern trains advised Members to approach their local managers with suggestions on improvements to fare collection, and other station improvements and also offered to take forward Members’ concerns at both local and headquarters levels. (Mr Tall, Area Manager Tonbridge/Hastings for SouthEastern trains is at the Area

Manager’s Office, Tonbridge Station, Tonbridge TN9 1TT Tel 01233 654487 Mobile 07771 828921 Email: [email protected])

The Chairman thanked Mr Whitburn for his very informative and interesting presentation.

PT GOVIA - IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEW KENT FRANCHISE FOR 06/004 RAIL TRAVEL IN TONBRIDGE AND MALLING

The Panel learned with regret that Govia was unable to provide a speaker for the meeting as planned. The Directors had expressed their apologies and hoped to arrange another mutually convenient time for the presentation in the near future.

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION IN PRIVATE

PT EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC 06/005 No items were considered in private.

The meeting ended at 2110 hours.