Written Evidence Submitted by Cheshire East Council
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REF0049 Written evidence submitted by Cheshire East Council 1. Bus services in Cheshire East provide essential access between major settlements and connect people to local services including employment, schools and recreation. Cheshire East Council are responsible for the coordination and information provision of the Cheshire East bus network which comprises of commercial and supported services. The Council’s wholly-owned transport company, Transport Service Solutions (TSS), works closely with private bus operators and strives to meet the needs of the passengers by providing a comprehensive network whist operating within budgetary constraints. The use of public transport and the way that people choose to travel, both locally and for longer domestic journeys 2. In recent years bus patronage across the borough has declined progressively and consistently. In 2016/17, there were approximately 4.5 bus passenger journeys per resident with bus patronage declining by 22% since 2009/10. These statistics place Cheshire East within the bottom five Local Authorities for the lowest number of passenger journeys per head (12 passenger journeys per head) and amongst the lowest number of trips per head of resident population in England. 3. Usage of the bus network is characterised by a high proportion of trips undertaken by concessionary pass holders – equating to 49% of all trips in 2016/17, the second highest proportion of concessionary users in the country. To a great extent, we consider that the provision of concessionary travel is fundamental to sustaining the current levels of bus service provision within Cheshire East. 4. Despite a downturn in bus utilisation, the Cheshire East Local Transport Plan 2019-2024 outlines that the council will continue to support socially-necessary bus services where possible (within budgetary constraints); consistently review the supported bus service provision to provide as wider coverage as possible; and, will look to draw closer ties with Bus User Groups (BUGs), including agreeing a memorandum of agreement. Following a comprehensive review of supported local bus services in 2017/18, the Council continues to commit significant resources to supported services, compared with many peer authorities in England & Wales. A key challenge is that as contract become more expensive, our purchasing power is diminished over time and we face on-going challenges of affordability and value-for-money. 5. The outbreak of COVID-19 placed an added strain on a bus network that is already experiencing challenges and a persistent decline in passenger numbers. The pandemic caused residents across Cheshire East to find new ways of working, particularly working from home and inevitably reduced the number of people travelling by public transport. With the current national advice and guidelines on the use of public transport, it will take some time before confidence is restored in the safety of the local network, particularly for the concessionary pass holders who represent 49% of all trips in Cheshire East. The Secretary of State, Grant Shapps revealed that UK bus patronage had fallen by 78% following strict government instructions to stay at home. Across Cheshire East, during the first week of June 2020, total passenger numbers had dropped by 83%, therefore slightly more than the national average. This loss of patronage represented an 84% drop in fare paying passengers and an 81% drop in concessionary passengers, based on a pre-covid weekly estimates. REF0049 6. Public transport operators, the DfT, devolved administrations, and transport authorities are all deliberating how to maintain social distancing on board vehicles as passenger numbers start to climb. A steady return to public transport use has been demonstrated across Cheshire East, with a 126% increase in utilisation between 20/06/2020 and 29/08/2020. However, it is noted that this is still more than 60% below a typical pre-covid week. 7. During this period, on average patronage was observed to be recovering at a rate of 8% per week. Based on this information and assuming continued growth and no further lockdown restrictions, it would take at least an additional 12 weeks to return to pre-covid patronage. However, there can be no certainty of this future which would be completely dependent on the lifting of lockdown restrictions and full recovery in passenger perceptions towards public transport. Phased Return to Public Transport: 20th June - 29th August 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE 20th 27th 4th 11th 18th 25th 1st 9th 15th 22nd 29th Aug July Aug June June July July July Aug Aug Aug 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 Concession Full Fare Total Passengers Central and local governmental transport priorities and finances and funding for transport 8. The decline in bus patronage, as a result of the pandemic, causes the commercial services provided by operators to be less viable, placing further pressure on the Council’s budget for supported (subsidised) services. 9. In light of this, since the outbreak of COVID-19 the UK Government has provided bus companies with rescue funding to aid service viability. In April 2020, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced a Bus Services Support Grant of £167m in addition to a commitment to maintain support funding worth £230m. This was followed up with an additional £254m for the second period from June-July 2020 to be used to increase the frequency and capacity so the UK can start moving back to a full timetable. REF0049 10. As of August 2020, the third round of the Government’s COVID-19 emergency grant was issued, with the bus industry receiving £218.4m of Covid Bus Service Support Grant Restart (CBSSG Restart) over eight weeks. This pays for substantially higher service levels than can be justified by current passenger numbers. The DfT has also revealed that it will continue to provide operators with £27.3m a week until funding is no longer required, with an eight week notice period given before funding ceases. The funding will be paid direct to bus operators, except for a portion that is paid to local transport authorities for tendered services. We welcome the emergency support to sustain the local networks during the pandemic, whilst acknowledging that the long-term over provision of capacity may be unsustainable. However, for the foreseeable future we consider this is essential to retain a coherent network in Cheshire East and begin to restore public confidence in bus travel. 11. The new round of CBSSG Restart will be paid at a rate of £1.14 per live kilometre operated, multiplied by a scaling factor based on patronage (excluding concessionary passengers). The Government says the grant level assumes local authorities continue to pay operators at pre-COVID levels for tendered services, concessionary travel, and home-to-school transport. 12. Cheshire East in consultation with Transport Service Solutions (TSS), agreed that this funding be allocated on the basis of scheduled supported bus kilometres on each service operating during the crisis. This funding was fully utilised in Cheshire East. These payments are made to offset a loss in on- bus revenue therefore have been allocated across all contracts (Minimum Subsidy and Minimum Cost) to compensate for any deficit in on-bus revenues. 13. In addition to the allocation of CBSSG, the authority has continued to pay Local Bus operators Concessionary Fares reimbursement at pre-covid-19 forecast levels and maintain local bus service support funding where the services have been reduced. In the longer term, there is a requirement for more flexible funding. Current funding has fixed deadlines and is focussed on sustaining the existing services. Inevitably, this leads to resolving short term issues rather than investing in long- term improvements. Post pandemic, we would urge funding support to be as flexible as possible to improve innovation and re-modelling of local networks. 14. Cheshire East Council provides financial support to operate socially-necessary bus services throughout the Borough. These services enable residents to benefit from local bus services in places where commercial services do not operate, providing access to essential services including health education, employment, retail and leisure. 15. The Council completed a comprehensive review of its local supported bus network to assess whether these services best meet the needs of residents and represent value-for-money to the Council. The review has assessed how to maximise the effectiveness of the supported bus network in accordance with the medium term financial strategy, which identifies a target saving of £1.576m from the annual supported bus budget commencing 1st April 2018. Following public consultation and consideration of the evidence, a set of adjustments/modifications were recommended to be made to the routes, as consulted, in order to better reflect the needs of residents as identified during the public consultation. More recently, we have joined with Cheshire and Warrington LEP and partners to develop a review of the future Bus Strategy for the sub-region. This will identify how the local public transport offer need to evolve to meet the needs of our 21st century economy. REF0049 The devolution of transport policy-making responsibilities and powers 16. Devolution is important because it means decisions are made closer to the people, communities and businesses they effect. At present, Cheshire East is a unitary authority and is therefore responsible for all local government functions within the area. However, under existing legislation determining rules for greater devolution of transport funding and powers, Cheshire East is constrained by the provisions which limit these powers to elected mayors. A requirement for devolution, is the introduction of a mayor; elected directly by local people in areas covered by combined authorities. 17. The council’s current status creates challenges, particularly when considering opportunities for bus franchising.