1 POLICY AND PERFORMANCE SCRUTINY PANEL Thursday, 10 November 2016 (7:00 pm – 9:05 pm) PRESENT: Councillor Clarke (Chair); Councillors Cross, Balaam, Mrs Broadhurst, Hatfield, Holden-Brown, Lear, Mignot, Parkinson-MacLachlan and Pragnell Also in attendance: Councillors Airey, Asman and Grajewski Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Garton ________________________________________ RESOLVED ITEMS (SUBJECT TO QUESTIONS ONLY) 1. MINUTES It was AGREED - That the Minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 6 October 2016 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest in relation to items of business on the agenda. 3. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT The Chairman reminded the Panel that the meeting on the 1 December would now be a seminar on the Future of Scrutiny, this would be an ongoing process evaluating and review how the Panel scrutinise in future and to build a better relationship with Cabinet. The Chairman thanked Richard Pemberton, Sustainable Transport Manager and operators for South West Trains, Bluestar, Xelabus and Three Rivers Partnership for attending the meeting. 4. AIR QUALITY REPORT FROM SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT - VERBAL REPORT This was deferred to a later meeting. 5. PUBLIC TRANSPORT ANNUAL REPORT INCLUDING DIAL-A-RIDE The Sustainable Transport Manager thanked the operators for attending the meeting. He advised that buses were used by the public three times more than trains but received less funding. Due to the Council’s ‘Future 2 Eastleigh’ project, a review of public transport services supported by the Council had been carried out to ensure good value for its support. A survey as part of the review showed that the bus passenger average spend per trip was £15 which was benefitting the local economy. Councillor Grajewski thanked operators for attending but stated she was disappointed Dial-a-Ride was not present as it made a massive contribution to the area. She was concerned that it was struggling with the amount of journeys with the limited vehicles. Councillor Airey, Cabinet Member for Transport and Streetscene thanked the Sustainable Transport Manager for his thorough and detailed report and thanked operators for attending. He also thanked South West Trains for supporting the 150th anniversary of the opening of Southampton to Netley line. He was pleased with how well Xelabus had done over the last six years and happy with the great investment Bluestar had established, as they provided a high quality service. The representative from South West Trains advised that the current franchise was coming to an end. Bids had now been submitted and were being evaluated by the Department for Transport and the new franchise would start in August 2017. The Panel was advised that major works at Waterloo station were taking place between 5 August 2017 and 28 August 2017 with reduced services over this period. It had been considered there would be less disruption carrying out the works over a 3 week period rather than over a longer period at weekends. The representative from Bluestar advised they had maintained a stable network and had introduced new services. New vehicles were being introduced and this would improve the fleet profile. As new vehicles were introduced, old ones were disposed of. There were ten new vehicles arriving in December 2016 with enhanced interior which would serve Bluestar 1, the vehicles from Bluestar 1 would move to Bluestar 2. The bus stop in Botley Square had been moved to the school and the time changed to prevent congestion in The Square. The representative from Xelabus advised the Panel that it was a family run company and provided a community service. It had acquired Velvet and Brijan and absorbed some of its services. It had recently invested heavily in new transport with five new E200 single decker buses arriving in December 2016 and plans for five more buses to be purchased in the spring. The network had grown using funding from companies, Tesco and Asda, however Tesco had withdrawn funding resulting in services XY and X2 finishing in late December 2016. The representative advised he was keen to work with the Council to introduce a travel shop at Eastleigh Bus Station. The representative from Three Rivers Partnership advised the Panel that it was a non-profit organisation and appreciated funding from local authorities. Its work was to improve stations, access to stations, improve 3 economic development in the local area and work with local bus operators. It was looking at promoting the local area by encouraging people to visit tourist areas by rail. It was pleased with passenger growth in the area and the forecast was to increase in the future and therefore greater investment was required. The Sustainable Transport Manager advised that bus use in Hampshire was at the highest levels in 30 years. In response to the request for a travel shop, he advised Xelabus that he would chase this up. He advised that Dial-a-Ride was always invited but had never attended but he would try and get a representative to attend a future Panel meeting. He advised that the demand for One-Community was great but there may be less funding in the future. Members thanked the representatives of the public transport operators for their attendance and asked a series of detailed questions: Changes to the X4 route – the journey after 1845 was supported by Eastleigh Borough Council and as this was only lightly used and expensive to run, the decision was made to withdraw this service as part of the Council’s public transport review. Councillor Asman thanked Xelabus for their excellent timetable information. X15 service missing bus stops – there seemed to be missing bus stops on the route on Winchester Road near Shamblehurst Lane and Chancellors Lane. Members were advised that Hampshire County Council were responsible for putting up bus stops on subsidised routes such as this one. X15 service – Members asked if this service could be retimed to allow Wyvern School pupils to be able to use the service as this went past the school 5 minutes before school finished. Members were advised that the timetable was set by Eastleigh Borough Council and Hampshire County Council and that it would look at the possibility of a timetable change perhaps in September 2017, but that there are a number of complexities that would need to be considered. Waterloo Station closure – Members were concerned the closure was occurring over the school holidays when families took advantage of cheap rail travel and visited London. The representative for South West Trains advised the Panel that the decision was made to allow for the least disruption due to less people travelling to London for work. They would be promoting other areas to travel by rail over the summer holidays. Rail announcements - Members were concerned with the announcements on the trains as they were not clear and sometimes arrival announcements were not made. The representative for South West Trains advised the Panel that she would speak to South West Trains colleagues about this issue. Disruption to rail travel over the Christmas period – Members were advised that there would be some preliminary work being carried 4 out at Waterloo Station on the 25 and 26 December 2016 and that Southern Trains were planning strikes over the Christmas period from 22 -26 December 2016 in the Brighton area. Medical Transport Service – Changes to the Eastleigh Borough Council subsidy per journey would decrease from 50% to 30% from the start of January 2017. This would be publicised in December 2016. Concessionary fares for 16-18 year olds – Bluestar advised the Panel that they were looking into reduced fares for 16-18 year olds and Xelabus advised that it sold a lot of bus passes to Barton Peveril students and that they can use these passes on any journey within the network at any other times. The Sustainable Transport Manager advised that if any suitable bid opportunities arose, they would explore the possibility of a concessionary fares scheme for 16-18 year olds. Bus replacements – There was concern of the number of travellers on the replacement buses that did not purchase tickets. The representative of South West Trains was aware of people travelling for free and she would take this up with the Replacement Team. Sustainable Transport and Electric/Hybrid Buses – Members were advised that there were no current Council policies regarding electric and hybrid vehicles (including buses) or supporting infrastructure e.g. charge points. Electric and hybrid buses were very expensive and not commercially viable without external support (e.g. bid funding). Diesel vehicles were currently the only realistic option for the area. The Council does include the emissions level of buses as one of its criteria in public transport procurement. The Council has also made attempts in partnership with Bluestar to secure bid funding for “micro hybrid” buses on Bluestar 2 in 2015, but without success, the bid fund was oversubscribed and most successful bids came from combined authorities, passenger transport authorities and London. Facilities at Eastleigh Train Station – Members were advised that toilets would not be provided on Platform 2 and 3. As the South West Trains franchise was coming to an end, there was currently no funding for the covered walkway however stations were being asked to collate the improvements required in preparation for the new franchise. Trees damaging buses – Members were advised by the representative of Xelabus that overgrowing trees were a major concern due to damage to the roofs and windows of the buses. It was expensive to replace glass and Xelabus spent £18000 this year on replacing damaged glass. Details would be passed on to Councillor Cross who would discuss the issue with Paul Naylor, Head of Direct Services and Matt Blythe, Area Manager.