County Council consultation on bus and community transport cuts - closing date 14 December

The following email was received via South Derbyshire CVS and has links to an online consultation.

If you use Public or Community Transport this will be of interest to you....


If you or your service users/members use public or community transport services in Derbyshire, please alert them to the proposals and encourage them to respond to this consultation.

Derbyshire County Council needs to make cuts of £157 million by 2018.  This includes proposed savings of £3.96m  from local bus and community transport services.

Most bus services in Derbyshire are run commercially by local bus companies who set the routes and fares.   But around 15 per cent (including a number of South Derbyshire services) are funded by the council which currently spends £3.7m on subsidised bus services.  A cut of £2.5m from this budget over 2 years  is proposed.

Local bus services which currently receive a subsidy include service numbers: 19 Ashby –Swadlincote-Burton via Netherseal, 21E and 22 Burton-Swadlincote services, 24 Swadlincote-Midway, 70 Barrow on Trent-Derby, 73 Weston on Trent-Derby, V1 Sunday service Derby-Hilton-Tutbury-Burton, V2 Derby-Burton via Eggington, and V3 Derby-Willington-Repton-Burton.

Around £1.4 m is also spent on grant funding for Community Transport dial-a-bus services throughout the county and £500k revenue funding Wheels to Work − a moped loan and cycle scheme which helps people get to work, education or training.  The proposal is to cut £1.46m from this budget over 2 years.

But before any decisions about reducing or withdrawing services are made bus users are being asked to tell DCC about the journeys they make − which routes and community transport services they use, and the impact on them if any of these services were taken away or changed.

Full details can be found, and the bus user survey can be completed online at
http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/have_your_say/consultation_search/Consultation_search_index/local_bus_and_community_transport_consultation.asp or printed copies are available from all Derbyshire branch libraries.

Closing date for responses is 14 December 2014. Feedback from this survey will then be used to develop proposals for how transport, funded by the council, could run in the future.
These proposals will then go out to full consultation in 2015.