(a)

on 15 March 2021, the Government published the National Bus Strategy for England ‘Bus Back Better’; the strategy sets out an ambitious vision to dramatically improve bus services across England (outside London) to first reverse the long-term decline in the number of journeys made by bus and secondly to encourage passengers back to the bus, post the Covid19 pandemic; it was intended that the strategy would deliver cheaper, more frequent and more reliable bus services for passengers; the strategy required the establishment of a formal partnership arrangement, led by the City Council as the Local Transport Authority, for all local bus services operated within the city boundary;

(b)

all Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) outside of London were required to enter into a formal partnership arrangement with local bus operators; entering into a formal partnership was necessary in order for the LTAs and bus operators to be eligible for any future Government funding; the partnership arrangement could either be a franchise or an Enhanced Partnership; the City Council approved the development of an Enhanced Partnership with the city’s bus operators and published a Notice of Intent on 25 June 2021;

(c)

the National Bus Strategy also required the City Council, as the LTA to lead the preparation of a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for submission for the Department of Transport (DfT) by the end of October 2021; the BSIP had to set out what the partnership would deliver, in order to make buses easier cheaper and more convenient to use; the final stage in the process was the publication of the Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme; this had to be achieved by 31 March 2022.

(d)

whether the passenger numbers had improved following the ending of the Covid restrictions;

(e)

raised concerns –

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on the accessibility of bus services (residents who lived on North Road West had to walk to Union Street, in order to catch a bus);

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on the ease of planning commutes and journeys; the provision of cross ticketing in the city and matching the provision of bus services to the ferry services offered;

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at the perceived lack of pace with regard to the long target dates contained within the report and the age of the fleet in 2030;

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that whilst the investment in buses was welcomed (improved frequency and upgraded buses), this did not address either the environmental or equitable issues;

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as to whether there would be sufficient funding available, in order to improve both environmental and equitable issues within the Plan;

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whether the Council’s plan would be strong enough to meet the eligible criteria (Manchester had a heavily subsidised transport scheme); the Council needed to ask the Government for a larger subsidy for the provision of bus services in Plymouth (it was cheaper for a family of four to use a car rather than a bus and also not be restricted by a timetable);

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the length of time that bus services (on the eastern side of the city) took to travel to the hospital (Sherford to the Derriford could often take an hour) which had a direct impact on the elderly residents of the city;

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that an opportunity had been missed in reviewing the bus routes in the city, in order to improve the service;

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relating to the lack of bus service provision for commuters (such as those wishing to travel to Langage);

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at the lack of bus provision in certain areas of the city such as Plymstock to Derriford;  accessibility to bus services was having an adverse impact on the elderly residents of the city who relied on this service; there was a need, going forward, to review this situation;

(f)

whether consideration had been given to alternatives to the ‘radial route’ model currently used in the city (such as the grid model) in order to improve the bus service offer for the whole of the city;

(g)

sought clarification -

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on whether there would be greater focus within the plan on the bus challenged communities of the city;

?

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on the percentage of buses that would either be electric or run on alternative fuels in the next five years;

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on whether the ‘lapsed’ bus users had been identified, in order to establish the reasons why they were not using the bus and to also encourage them to do so;

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on whether any work had been undertaken to encourage people from outside the city’s boundaries to travel in by bus (such as those people commuting from Ivybridge);

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on whether an engagement exercise would be undertaken in order to increase bus usage and if so, whether Councillors could be kept updated;

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with regard to the equalities impact assessment how the focus groups had been set up, how the data had been interrogated and collected, and how the data was disaggregated demographically; (it was of concern that the equalities impact assessment did not show any difference between the accessibility of men and women when using bus routes, as transport research had shown that there were significant differences);

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on whether there was a ‘plan b’ if funding was not available to purchase new buses in order to be carbon neutral by 2030, and whether Government funding would be available;

(h)

whether consideration had been given to comparing bus journeys across the city, in order to help to promote the use of buses as an attractive option.

(i)

that a map is made available detailing the bus routes in the city, colour-coded to identify the frequency of the services in order to compare the bus services in the city centre to those on the outskirts;

(j)

that the bus user engagement reports were made available to the Committee.

(1)

note the timescales for completion of the Plymouth Bus Service Improvement Plan 2021 and the requirement to subsequently publish an Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme;

(2)

endorse the ambitions of the Plymouth Bus Service Improvement Plan 2021 and the aspiration to make Plymouth’ buses more frequent, more reliable, easier to understand and use, better co-ordinated and cheaper;

(3)

endorse the thematic proposals of the Plymouth Bus Service Improvement Plan 2021, as a comprehensive suite of measures which support the policies of the Plymouth Plan and the needs of Plymouth’s current and future bus users.