Bus Service Provision

Campaign for Better Transport made this Freedom of Information request to North Yorkshire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

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Campaign for Better Transport
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To whom it may concern,

I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I am gathering information on bus and public transport provision in North Yorkshire County Council as part of the Save our Buses campaign, which maps cuts to bus services across the country. We know that the Government has made deep cuts to local authority budgets, and that this is having an effect on the provision of local bus services. We would like to gather a national picture of bus cuts, so that we can explain to central Government exactly how their decisions are having an impact across the country.

My questions are as follows, in each case only with respect to North Yorkshire County Council:

1. What is the total budget for supported bus services in the fiscal year 2015/16?

2. What was total budget for supported bus services in the fiscal year 2014/15?

Note: This refers to the Department for Transport’s definition of a supported bus service as: “one where a local transport authority has invited tenders for the operation of a service (not e.g. seats on a bus or subsidised tickets etc), and a contract exists as a result of that tender”. Please, exclude extra sources of funding such as Section 106/developer funding, Community Infrastructure Levy, local authority staffing and publicity, RTPI expenditure and revenue, the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG), Local Education Authority funding for home to school transport, NHS-funded non-emergency patient transport, social services transport, voluntary transport and other central and national government grants or income streams.

3. What is the fiscal year 2015/16 budget for supported bus services as a percentage of the total transport budget?

Note: For the purposes of this request 'transport' includes highway maintenance, home to school/college transport; adult social care transport; demand responsive transport; special educational need transport and voluntary driver schemes, cycling and walking, roads spending, supported bus services and fares. Please include the council’s contributions to projects jointly funded by multiple organisations, but exclude contributions from those other organisations and funding streams, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, private sector contributions, Local Growth Fund, Department for Transport contributions to Local Authority Major Projects, Local Sustainable Transport Fund etc.

4. What proportion of total council expenditure (capital and current) is constituted by local bus funding?

5. What changes have been made to non-statutory concessionary fare schemes in the fiscal year 2015/16?

6. How many and which supported routes have had cuts in services in the fiscal year 2015/16 (for example loss of weekend or evening services)?

7. How many and which supported routes have been completely withdrawn in the fiscal year 2015/16?

Yours faithfully,

Martin Abrams
Campaign For Better Transport

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Data Management Officer, North Yorkshire Council

Dear Mr Abrams

Thank you for your request for information below of which we acknowledge receipt.

Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the relevant legislation.

Kind regards

Paul Atkinson, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

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Suzanne Plumb, North Yorkshire Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Abrams

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request.  Please see our
response to your questions below.

 

1. What is the total budget for supported bus services in the fiscal year
2015/16?

 

                £2,852,800 – please see additional information below

 

2. What was total budget for supported bus services in the fiscal year
2014/15?

 

                £3,461,000 – please see additional information below

 

3. What is the fiscal year 2015/16 budget for supported bus services as a
percentage of the total transport budget?

 

                The percentage of the supported bus service against the
total transport budget is 7.27%.

 

4. What proportion of total council expenditure (capital and current) is
constituted by local bus funding?

 

                The percentage of the supported bus service against the
total transport budget is 0.35%.

 

5. What changes have been made to non-statutory concessionary fare schemes
in the fiscal year 2015/16?

 

                There have been no changes made to the non-statutory
concessionary fare schemes during 2015/16.

 

6. How many and which supported routes have had cuts in services in the
fiscal year 2015/16 (for example loss of weekend or evening services)?

 

                There has been no targeted cuts during 2015/2016.  We have
replaced some scheduled services with Community Transport services as part
of contract management.

 

7. How many and which supported routes have been completely withdrawn in
the fiscal year 2015/16?

 

                There have been no services withdrawn during 2015/2016.

 

The answers supplied in questions 1 and 2 are not supplied on the same
basis as the information provided to your questions last year.  Therefore,
please see the graph below which show the amount the council spent
subsidising local bus services between 2005/06 and 2015/16 (2015/2016 is
the budget).  I have also attached the leaflet ‘Explaining our budget
2015/2016’ for your information.

 

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D100EE.9F16E7F0

 

Regards

 

 

Suzanne Plumb

Business Development Manager

Integrated Passenger Transport

 

Tel:  01609 535128

 

 

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