Better Buses For Somerset Need YOUR Help!
Hello everyone,
Firstly, thankyou to all of you for answering our call for your feedback. We got a particularly high response from people like yourselves on the 162 Frome-Shepton Mallet and the 184 Frome-Midsomer Norton routes, and I am addressing this email to you as a result.
In the mid-1980s, the local bus networks across the country were deregulated, with private bus operators running routes that made them a profit, and local authorities such as Somerset having the option of filling in socially necessary gaps in service by subsidising additional routes or additional journeys.
It was under this system around a decade ago that First ran an hourly daytime bus service on Monday to Saturdays on both what were then the 161/162 Frome-Wells and 184 Frome-Bath routes. However, First at that point told the then Somerset County Council (SCC) that they could no longer afford to do this, and they would have to move to an every 2 hours daytime service on both routes, with SCC paying First a top-up subsidy if they wanted even this reduced service to continue, which SCC agreed to.
However, very shortly after that, First decided that they wanted to pull out of these routes completely. SCC soon found that what they had been paying First as a top-up subsidy would not cover the cost of full replacement every 2 hours daytime service on Monday to Saturdays on both the 161/162 Frome-Wells and 184 Frome-Bath routes. This is why you ended up instead with the cut back with sparse frequency current Monday to Friday daytime only 162 Frome-Shepton Mallet and the 184 Frome-Midsomer Norton routes. All appeals to SCC since then to subsidise a better level of service on these routes have been rejected on the grounds of lack of funds.
There did appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel in 2021, when the Boris Johnson-led Conservative government introduced their National Bus Strategy (also known as Bus Back Better) which promised a far greater say for passengers and their representatives in shaping their local bus network, along with additional Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding to help fund actual improvements to bus services. Sadly this has turned out to be a bit of a mirage in Somerset, because when the now Somerset Council (SC) set up the National Bus Strategy-mandated Bus Advisory Board that oversees this process in Somerset, they deliberately restricted the number of places on the Board for passenger representatives compared to places on the Board for bus operators and SC officers.
This essentially meant that nothing changed in terms of private bus operators running routes that made them a profit, and local authorities such as Somerset having the option of filling in socially necessary gaps in service by subsidising additional routes or additional journeys, with the new system set up so that First and SC effectively still called all the shots. As a result, SC and First ignored the recommendations of passenger representatives on how BSIP funding should be spent, and it was instead spent according to a deal made between SC and First to introduce evening services on First's most profitable routes, which all radiated out of Taunton. Other areas of Somerset, including yours, were passed over, despite there being a very clear and obvious need for a better service to be provided on your sparse Monday to Friday daytime only routes.
However, with the coming to power of the new Labour government, there is at last a genuine opportunity to put in place the kind of system that is capable of delivering the kind of bus service improvements that areas such as yours so desperately need. This is because they want to see Bus Franchising, which would put local authorities in charge of the bus network rather than private bus operators, and would require a far greater level of passenger input into how bus services are provided than has ever been the case before, introduced across the country.
Better Buses For Somerset and Somerset Bus Partnership (SBP), which is the biggest passenger representative group in Somerset, have agreed to work together to help make Bus Franchising a reality in Somerset. We intend to do this by backing a proposal drawn up by independent public transport consultant and leading Bus Franchising expert Lee Fletcher, working alongside SBP timetabling expert Emery Taylor, which would see Bus Franchising introduced in the WECA and North Somerset local authority areas and the northern half of Somerset, plus the western half of Wiltshire. This would see new improved timetables drawn up based on the recommendations of newly created Local Area Panels (LAPs), which would be led by passenger representatives such as yourselves. The local authorities in charge of implementing the new franchised bus network would required to implement the recommendations of the LAPs, within budgetary constraints.
In order to ensure that there is enough funding in the Bus Franchising budget to implement the recommendations of the LAPs, the Bus Franchising proposal also contains a revolutionary Developer Bus Funding policy, which has already been successfully pioneered by Essex County Council, where residential developments over a certain size generate an automatic levy per dwelling exclusively for bus service improvements, which will be tailored to generate the most benefit possible from the new Labour government's ambitious national development policies.
So that we can show you how this system would work in practice, we asked Lee and Emery to design an improved bus service for your area based on your feedback. As a result, they have come up with an improved 184 Frome-Midsomer Norton service, and a new improved 669 Street-Glastonbury-Shepton Mallet-Frome service. Both of these routes would run 7 days a week, and would also run right through the evening on Monday-Saturdays. I have attached their proposed timetables for these routes for you to look at, and we would be very grateful for your feedback, both in terms of us knowing that it would satisfy the needs of passengers such as yourselves, and so if necessary they can adapted if there is anything obvious that has been missed and would be possible to also include.
Last but not least, we also believe that it would make a real difference if we could set up an East Mendip Bus Users Group with yourselves as members, to really help push these proposals forward. Peter Travis, who is a leading member of Frome and the Villages Bus Users Group (FAVBUG) who have had a fair amount of success over the years securing improvements to routes such as the D2/D2x Frome-Bath route, has offered to help us through the process of setting such a bus user group up. Peter is also the Co-Chair of Somerset Bus Partnership, and working with him would also give you access to help and assistance from, and to be able to discuss ideas with, other such user groups from all over Somerset.
So to recap, we would be very grateful if you could:
- Look over the attached proposed timetables for your area, and let us know whether they would satisfy the needs of passengers such as yourselves, and so if necessary they can adapted if there is anything obvious that has been missed and would be possible to also include.
- Let us know whether you would be willing to join and participate in the new East Mendip Bus Users Group.
Let's hope that this is just the beginning of an exciting journey for us all.
Yours sincerely
James Smithers
Better Buses For Somerset
PLEASE EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS TO HOLCOMBE PARISH CLERK ON clerk@holcombepc.org.uk
29th August 2024