Julian Heubeck, Public Transport Co-ordinator, Leicester City Council, will be present to provide an update on the Number 36 bus that services part of Evington.
Minutes:
The Chair reminded the meeting that there had been previous discussion on this bus service by individuals and groups and in the Evington Echo. However, the City Mayor was now in the process of undertaking a review of all bus services that the Council funded in the city, to examine costs and consider whether better services could be provided.
Julian Heubeck, Public Transport Co-Ordinator with Leicester City Council, advised the meeting that the Council wanted to do a very thorough review of services that were supported by the Council. This would include the cost of the services, rates of usage, the availability of other services and what other authorities did in relation to non-commercial services. As part of the review, a public consultation had started.
The 36 service cost approximately £87,000 a year and carried approximately 27,000 people per year. This meant that the subsidy for the service was approximately £3.23 per passenger. It therefore was proposed that the 36 service would not continue. However, Centre bus company had proposed that changes should be made to the 22 and 22A services, so that they served Whitehall Road and part of Goodwood Road.
The benefits of this proposal included:-
· At present, people living at the junction of Ethel Road and Whitehall Road were a bit isolated, but this proposal gave a useful link to the Evington Road area;
· The service would run every 20 minutes and would run in to the evening. This would be an improvement on the frequency of the 36 service;
· It was recognised that this broke the link with the General Hospital and Crown Hills, but for many users the new route provided an improved service. Other services operated in Crown Hills, but many users of service 36 would have to walk to access them; and
· It was hoped that the new services would be more sustainable, as the changes provided more security for the bus companies to invest.
Julian Heubeck advised that the consultation on the city-wide bus services would run for 4 weeks, (until 22 July 2013). After this, the City Mayor would examine the results and decide if any changes to services were needed. It therefore was likely that any changes made would come in to effect at the end of September or start of October 2013.
Residents expressed concern that the proposals being made did not address problems highlighted during the previous consultation on bus services. Over 1,000 people used the 36 bus after 9.30 am and before 4.00 pm, so a lot of people would be inconvenienced by the proposed changes. For example, the 36 was the only bus to go to the temple in East Park Road.
In reply, it was noted that the proposed re-routing of the 22A and 22B services would compensate for this. It was recognised that some people would not benefit from the changes and would lose service with the loss of the 36, but as the majority of journeys were to and from the city most people would benefit.
Concern was also expressed that, under the changes proposed, people would have to walk uphill when returning from the only available supermarkets. Residents were advised to include evidence such as this in their replies to the consultation, along with any other problems that would arise from the changes.
The need for two services on the 22 route was questioned, as there appeared to be many occasions on which they ran at the same time and neither had many passengers. Julian Heubeck advised that both of these services were commercially operated, so the Council had no input to, or control over, when and how they ran. It also had no passenger data, as this was commercially sensitive information.
The following points were then made in discussion:-
o People would have to go in to the city and back out again to get to the Green Lane area;
o No consideration appeared to have been given to bus services for people living near the mosque, as the proposed revisions to the 22 and 22A service would not take in Gamel Road or Spencefield Lane. Many of these people were elderly and so would not be able to, for example, reach their doctor;
o An alternative route to that proposed would be for the bus to go up Davenport Road, along part of Coleman Road and in to the General Hospital, where it could turn round. This would enable bus users to connect with other services at the Hospital; and
o Although service 22 ran on a Saturday, neither the 22 nor the 22A ran on a Sunday or bank holiday.
The Chair reminded the meeting that leaflets about the consultation were widely available and that information on the consultation could be found on the City Council’s website.