Dear Southend on Sea Borough Council,

I hereby submit this Freedom of Information request for the following facts and figures regarding bus and public transport provision in Southend on Sea Borough Council as of 2011.

We are gathering this information as part of the Save Our Buses campaign. We know that the Government has made very deep cuts to local authority budgets and that local authorities have been struggling to keep their bus networks intact while finding savings. What we want to gather is a national picture of bus cuts, so that we can explain to central Government exactly how their decisions are likely to impact the country. Without this big picture the Government is able to dismiss bus cuts as local decisions. We hope to lobby the Government to give greater financial support for the bus network because we understand that the smooth operation of a whole range of national and local government provision and work is dependent on people being able to catch the bus.

We know that some authorities have already made decisions regarding cuts, some are still in the process of making decisions around how many services will lose funding and some have made some cuts and are considering further cuts. We are trying to get a picture of the risk posed to the bus network, so where you have proposals being considered but decisions have not been made finally yet please let us know.

I am aware of the general figures and information currently on your website, but would be grateful for clarification on the following points:

1) Whether there have been cuts in Council funding to home to school transport, and what changes to school transport provision are foreseen as a result of that cut. If you are still considering proposals we would like to know what these are.
2) Whether there have been cuts to council funding for post 16 education transport provisions, and what changes to post 16 transport provisions are foreseen as a result of that cut. If you are still considering proposals we would like to know what these are.
3) If you have had any scheme for concessionary fares in 2010 for young people please let us know if that will see changes going forward as a result of funding decisions this year. If you are still considering proposals we would like to know what these are.
4) How much your budget has been reduced this financial year for capital funding improvements for bus provision, such as bus priority schemes. Are there, as a result, schemes that you had planned to go forward with that you now have to shelve or undo?

This information above may include, but not be limited to:

Minutes of Council budget-setting meetings and meetings with operators
E-Mail conversations, specifically relating to the requested subject.
Route timings, and drafts of these timings.
Reasons for change and withdrawal of services, where this may occur.

Please let me know upon acknowledgement, if there are any queries relating to this request.

Yours faithfully,

Jasmine Chahal
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Save Our Buses Campaign
Campaign for Better Transport
www.bettertransport.org.uk
020 7566 6489

Dear FOI requests at Southend on Sea Borough Council,

I am writing because on the 13 July this year we write to you with questions regarding home to school transport. We also wrote to you with questions about council funded buses, which you did reply to. However you never got back to us about the School Transport set of questions. We are now reviewing the data and this came to our attention I would like you to check your records and make sure that this request is dealt with.

Yours sincerely,
Sophie Allain
on behalf of
Jasmine Chahal