Decision details

To seek Cabinet Member approval for changes to bus services, in order to achieve financial savings as agreed by Council on 22 February 2011 (this is the second such report - approval for changes to some services in the Salisbury area was given in Cabinet Member decision    HT-019-11 on 13 May 2011).

That the recommendations in respect of bus service changes set out in Table 2 are approved

The proposed service changes have been identified in accordance with the Council’s Guidelines for funding of supported bus services, and to minimise the impact on users.  Some of the initial proposals have been modified in response to comments received from users and local communities. 

The reasons for each of the original service change proposals, on which comments were invited, are shown in Table 1.

A summary of the comments received, and the reason for the final recommendation on each of the proposals (where different from the above), are shown in Tables 2 and 3.  It is considered that the changes recommended to the initial proposals can be accommodated within the target of savings required.

The budget setting process considered other options for achieving the required savings from the passenger transport budget, but as most of the other significant areas of spend are statutory requirements, the scope for making savings elsewhere was limited. The need for savings in bus service spending was minimised by the decision to increase car parking charges specifically to raise income for this purpose.

The choice of proposals for service changes included considering other ways of achieving the required savings target, but the proposals that were chosen were considered to represent the best way of making the savings within the required timescale with the minimum of hardship for users.

Although a saving of £600,000 has to be achieved in order to balance the budget, and officers are confident that the proposals represent the best way of achieving this with the minimum of hardship, the opportunity has been given for communities to respond if they are aware of particular difficulties that will result. A letter has been sent to all Town and Parish Councils, and Members, with an attachment showing details of the proposals that are relevant to their area. An allowance has been made for funding a limited alternative service in a number of cases, where it is considered that significant hardship would result, and where a viable and affordable alternative can be identified.  A number of changes to the original proposals are recommended as a result of the comments that have been received.