The Board is aware that there are several problems facing the community area regarding Rural Transport; three key issues being:
· Transport issues relating to access to activities in the evening and at the weekend for young people.
· Transport issues relating to access to amenities and leisure, particularly in the daytime for the elderly and isolated.
· Issues in relation to school traffic in specific locations.
Round table discussions seeking solutions to these problems will be held and feedback sought.
Minutes:
The Chairman explained that the Board was aware that there were several problems facing the Community Area regarding Rural Transport. Three examples were given in the agenda, these were:
· Transport issues relating to access to activities in the evening and at the weekend for young people.
· Transport issues relating to access to amenities and leisure, particularly in the daytime for the elderly and isolated.
· Issues in relation to school traffic in specific locations.
People were then asked to take part in discussion around their tables to come up with solutions to the problems above. Each table was then asked to feed back one example. These solutions, along with others produced on the night are listed below:
· Free small ‘community buses’ to town, for the elderly, isolated or those on benefits.
· Small buses running more regularly, especially after 6pm and on the weekend.
· To set up car share schemes.
· Smaller buses for rural routes, to accommodate the smaller winding roads.
· Combine buses on school routes in lieu of taxis.
· Means testing of eligibility of bus passes.
· Cross boarder funding for school transport.
· A late night bus service once or twice a week.
· More use of community mini buses/school buses, when not in use (eg. The ‘Tisbus’ scheme but for the Southern Wilts area).
· Better use of existing facilities within the community eg. Church/school minibuses.
· Link Schemes could be extended to young people and the elderly.
· Protection of existing bus services.
· Implementation of a yellow school bus scheme.
· A reduction to the cost of public transport, as too expensive.
· Make it easier to use the available minibuses, less vigorous CRB checks etc.
· Improvement to the public transport timetables/more frequent.
· Moped lease through Community First.
· Better provision for cyclists, with an implementation of cycle ways for all areas.
· A bus service that was scheduled to stop at the train station at useful times.
· Sunday public transport service from villages that currently don’t have them.
· Community buses scheduled to take groups of young people to youth clubs etc.
· Community bus to take elderly residents to the doctor’s surgery (Winterslow).
· Timetables that were more user friendly.
· Carry out a usage survey to establish if changes needed to be made to the current service.
· Local shared transport schemes.
· Better co-ordinated usage schemes with collections from hospital etc.
· Improve public footpaths to encourage walkers (ask landowners to give access across private land).
· Reinstate railways/re-open stations.
· Fare concessions for the elderly and young people.
· Pick up Taxi service, for the community (commercial basis).
· Find volunteers for driving duties, for the minibuses that Trafalgar School has put into the community scheme for use.
· Schools to update their travel plans, to work to reduce the number of cars accessing them each day.
The Chairman explained that the ideas provided would be analysed to establish whether there was a common theme which could be explored and developed.
Liam Tatton-Bennett from Community Transport at Community First explained that there was already a link scheme and bus services available for the elderly, and that he was surprised to see that access to transport for the elderly was an identified problem
He also spoke about the pilot minibus scheme in Market Lavington for young people, which was a service designed entirely by the young people of the area, to meet their needs. The scheme was due to run for a six week trial period. Liam would be interested in working with the young people in the Southern Wiltshire Community Area to see whether a similar scheme could be devised.