Consultation on proposed changes to bus route 83 and the introduction of new route 483 Consultation Report June 2016 1 Consultation on proposed changes to bus route 83 and the introduction of new route 483 Consultation Report 2 Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 2 2 The consultation .......................................................................................... 2 3 Responses from members of the public ...................................................... 4 4 Responses from statutory bodies and other stakeholders ......................... 14 Appendix A – Consultation materials .............................................................. 19 Appendix B – Leaflet distribution area ............................................................. 24 Appendix C - Postcode Analysis ..................................................................... 25 Appendix D – All comments received .............................................................. 30 Appendix E – List of stakeholders consulted ................................................... 39 1 1 Introduction We recently consulted stakeholders and the public about a proposed change to bus route 83 and the introduction of a new bus route, numbered 483. The consultation took place for a period of six weeks from Monday 11 January to Monday 22 February 2016. This report explains the background to the scheme and consultation, and summarises the responses. Route 83 is a 24-hour service that runs daily between Golders Green and Ealing Hospital serving Hendon, Wembley, Alperton, Hanger Lane and Ealing. Buses run approximately every 8 minutes during the day Mondays to Saturdays, every 10 minutes during the day on Sundays and every 12 minutes on all evenings. The overnight service runs every 30 minutes on all nights of the week. Our proposals were developed to meet both current and predicted future demand for bus services in the area, and to improve reliability and capacity for existing bus routes. The proposals included: Shortening route 83 so that it would run between Golders Green and Alperton station only, and not continue onto Ealing Hospital. This would improve reliability for users of current route 83 The introduction of new route 483 that would run between Harrow town centre and Ealing Hospital. This would create new links to and from East Lane to the nearby town centres of Harrow and Wembley; a new direct link between Ealing and Alperton to Harrow town centre and Northwick Park Hospital; and an extra bus service for passengers travelling along Ealing Road, Wembley High Road, East Lane and Watford Road The introduction of a new night bus service, numbered N83, to run between Golders Green and Ealing Hospital via the current 83 route. This would replace the 24-hour service of route 83, ensuring all current stops on route 83 retain a night service 2 The consultation The consultation was designed to enable us to understand local opinion about the proposed changes to route 83 and the possible introduction of new route 483. We also wanted to make people aware there were no significant changes proposed for night bus services in the area. The potential outcomes of the consultation are: We decide the consultation raises no issues that should prevent us from proceeding with the scheme as originally planned We modify the scheme in response to issues raised in consultation We abandon the scheme as a result of issues raised in the consultation 2 2.1 Consultation objectives The objectives of the consultation were: To give stakeholders and the public easily-understandable information about the proposals and allow them to respond To understand the level of support or opposition for the change To understand any issues that might affect the proposal of which we were not previously aware To understand concerns and objections To allow respondents to make suggestions 2.2 Who we consulted The consultation intended to seek the views of local residents, current users of bus route 83, and those who might potentially use proposed new route 483. We also consulted stakeholders including the affected Councils, traffic police, London TravelWatch, Members of Parliament, Assembly Members, ward councillors and local interest groups. A list of the stakeholders we consulted is shown in Appendix E and a summary of their responses is given in Section 4. 2.3 Consultation materials, distribution and publicity The consultation was published online. A dedicated web page explained the background to the proposal. We invited people to respond by answering seven specific questions, including three questions with a free text area for comments. We raised awareness of the consultation by sending an email to key stakeholders, and to registered Oyster Card holders who have used route 83. A press release advertising the consultation was also issued to the local media. We delivered a leaflet to approximately 22,000 local households and businesses within a 400 metre radius of the proposed new 483 bus route. The leaflet distribution area can be found at Appendix B. Leaflets were also distributed during public drop-in sessions, and were supplied to colleagues at the London Boroughs of Brent and Harrow, Brent Civic Centre Library and the public travel information desk at Harrow Bus Station. Where space permitted, posters were also placed at bus stops along routes 83, 79, 182 and 245, to capture the geographic area that the proposals related to. Unfortunately the bus stop poster displayed an incorrect website address. The error was rectified within 24 hours of the consultation launch date. An online fix was applied to ensure respondents accessing the website landed on the correct page either via ‘consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/83-483-n83’, or the shortened ‘consultations.tfl.gov.uk/83- 483-n83’ website address displayed on the posters. Copies of all consultation materials can be found at Appendix A. People were invited to respond to the consultation using a variety of methods. These were via the online questionnaire, by email to [email protected], in writing via our freepost address, or on completion of a feedback form during one of our public drop-in sessions. 2.4 Meetings and drop in-sessions We met with Councillor Graham Henson, Harrow Council and the Harrow Public Transport Users’ Association on Tuesday 1 December 2015. We also met with Northwick Park Hospital and Campus Transport Group on Thursday 7 January 2016. 3 During these meetings we explained the background to our proposals and gave details of our consultation timetable. We held four public drop-in sessions during the consultation period which enabled us to hand out leaflets, answer queries and encourage people to comment. Feedback forms were also available for those wishing to comment in writing. The drop-in sessions took place as follows: Harrow Bus Station on Thursday 21 January 2016 Brent Civic Centre foyer on Monday 25 January 2016 Ealing Hospital main entrance on Wednesday 3 February 2016 Northwick Park Hospital main square on Wednesday 10 February 2016 3 Responses from members of the public Overview We received 645 responses from members of the public and 12 responses from stakeholders. There were 547 responses via our website and 98 responses by post, email or consultation form. There were 10 responses that were confirmed to have been duplicates and these were consolidated down in to five responses. We asked members of the public how they found out about the consultation. Figure 3.1 shows the results. The majority, 263 respondents (41 per cent), received our email while 70 (11 per cent) received our leaflet and 62 (10 per cent) found out through other means. Figure 3.1 Q13. How did you hear about this consultation? 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Email Leaflet Read TfL Social Drop-in No from from in the Other Total website media session answer TfL TfL press Responses 263 70 21 42 27 31 62 129 645 (%) 41% 11% 3% 7% 4% 5% 10% 20% 100% 4 There were a total of 421 respondents who provided their postcode, with at least one response from 21 of the London boroughs. There were eight responses from outside Greater London. Table 3.1 Borough Responses Brent 216 Ealing 99 Harrow 37 Barnet 34 Outside Greater London 8 Hillingdon 6 Camden 3 Haringey 2 Hounslow 2 Southwark 2 Bromley 1 Enfield 1 Islington 1 Kensington and Chelsea 1 Lambeth 1 Lewisham 1 Newham 1 Redbridge 1 Richmond upon Thames 1 Waltham Forest 1 Wandsworth 1 Westminster 1 The distribution of respondents across London is shown in Figure 3.2. Along with Table 3.1 it is possible to see the highest concentration of responses is in the borough of Brent, and in particular, around the Wembley area. Over three quarters of all the respondents who gave their postcode were from the boroughs of Brent and Ealing, with a total of 315 responses. There was also a noticeable level of response from both the boroughs of Harrow and Barnet where 37 and 34 responses came from respectively. No other London borough provided more than 10 responses. 5 Figure 3.2 A detailed postcode analysis looking at responses to each of our survey questions can be found in Appendix C – Postcode Analysis. 6 3.1 Public consultation results To help understand more about those who replied and their thoughts on the routes and proposals, we asked a number of questions; We asked respondents if they currently used route 83. Figure 3.3 Q1. Do you currently use route 83? 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 No answer No Yes Total Responses 75 88 482 645 (%) 12% 14% 75% 100% Of the 645 responses we received 482 (75 per cent) stated that they were current users of the 83 bus route. 88 (14 per cent) said they did not use it, while 75 responses (12 per cent) did not answer. 7 We asked respondents how often they used route 83. Figure 3.4 Q2. How often do you use route 83? 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2-3 1-2 Once a No Daily times a times a Rarely Never Total week answer week month Responses 169 119 58 89 73 34 103 645 (%) 26% 18% 9% 14% 11% 5% 16% 100% Figure 3.4 shows the response to question two which asks respondents how often they use route 83.