2006-2011 LTP Annex 2

Introduction

The purpose of this strategy is to set out what is needed in Warwickshire over the next five years to ensure excellent passenger transport services which will address the needs of both current and potential passengers in Warwickshire and deliver the transport objectives of the Government and the County Council.

Section 110 of the Transport Act 2000 requires Warwickshire County Council to prepare a “…strategy containing their general policies as to how best to carry out their functions… in order that:

• Bus services meet the transport requirements;
• Bus services are provided to the correct standards; and
• Appropriate additional facilities and services are provided as the authority consider should be provided.”

The target audience for this strategy comprises a wide range of stakeholders including the residents of Warwickshire, community transport passengers and representative organisations, voluntary groups, the Department for Transport, the Council’s local authority and regional partners, the Countryside Agency, operators and providers of community transport services, the Highways Agency and regulatory bodies.

The County Council is convinced that the underlying principle of the Community Transport Strategy must be to provide for the travel needs of passengers. Customers’ needs should come before the operational requirements of the transport providers and, where applicable, their commercial requirements.

The timescale of the strategy is primarily the period 2005-2011, but it also provides a medium term framework for the future development of transport up to 2016 and a less detailed longer-term direction for the period after 2016.  This forward-thinking approach is crucial as the delivery of public transport initiatives involves a wide range of stakeholders and the timescales for the schemes and measures will need to be flexible to take advantage of the implementation opportunities as they arise.

An effective transport network is essential in order to give people, in both the urban and rural areas of Warwickshire, access to the opportunities and benefits that contribute to the enjoyment of a better quality of life. Public transport needs will continue to be met by either bus, rail, community transport services or similar initiatives or any appropriate combination of these modes. This Strategy deals specifically with the contribution community transport services make in providing an effective transport network. 

In this strategy, community transport is passenger transport and public transport modes of provision operating in a community transport sector that has evolved and continues to respond wherever there are unmet transport needs in Warwickshire.

The effectiveness of transport links extends, not only to their provision but also to difficulties in physically accessing what is provided, and other equally important issues such as the level of fares, journey time, personal security and comfort.

Each of these activities and modes has interlinked strategies and common aims and their provision will be integrated to provide the most effective transport service.

A further aspect that needs to be taken into account is that peoples’ travel needs are not constrained by administrative boundaries.  This strategy therefore considers cross-boundary services and services operating wholly within Warwickshire on an equal basis.  This approach, in terms of delivery, makes effective partnership working with adjoining local authorities, regional and other stakeholders, users and transport providers absolutely essential.  The County Council is committed to this way of working and partnership is a recurrent theme throughout the Public Transport Strategy and the public transport mode specific strategies.

This document outlines:

• The objectives of the strategy;
• A brief overview of the key policy framework in which community transport services operate;
• Population trends impacting on the achievement of the policy objectives;
• Performance of the existing community transport network;
• Existing and potential community transport users’ views on current services and future needs;
• The Community Transport Strategy that was developed in response to this;
• Constraints on delivering the Community Transport Strategy;
• The Action Plan for delivery, the proposed schemes and measures; and
• Monitoring of the Action Plan

The Action Plan is a realistic implementation mechanism in the light of the constraints, with a monitoring and review process against set targets.

Strategy Objectives

The starting point for this Community Transport Strategy is the overall transport objectives of the Local Transport Plan 2006-2011, which have been developed to reflect national, regional and local policy. 

The Community Transport Strategy will contribute to achieving the objectives in the LTP by promoting a passenger network, which:

• Offers accessibility through the public transport system, both in terms of physical access to transport and its availability, to the widest cross section of the population;
• Gives people (including those who do not have access to cars) more travel choices to access work, services and leisure activities;
• Offers affordable fares to passengers;
• Provides an attractive and sustainable travel alternative to the car thereby helping to reduce traffic congestion and pollution levels and improving air quality and the environment; and
• Encourages integration with other modes of transport.

Policy and Context

Statutory Requirements

Warwickshire County Council is required under the 1985 Transport Act to:

“…secure the provision of such public passenger transport services as the Council consider it appropriate to secure to meet any public transport requirements within the county which would not in their view be met apart from any action taken by them for that purpose” and “…to formulate from time to time general policies as to the descriptions of services they propose to secure..” (Source: Transport Act 1985, Paragraph 63 (1) (a) and (b)).

Our Community Transport Strategy will also show how the authority's provision of subsidised services under the powers in the Transport Act 1985, as amended by the 2000 Act, supports the achievement of its local transport objectives and delivery of improvements in accessibility and social inclusion. It will also describe policies for the authority's use of Rural Bus Subsidy Grant and for continued support of successful policies previously supported by Government funding schemes such as the Rural and Urban Bus Challenges and the Rural Transport Partnership.

Community transport is identified as an important element in integrated transport strategy. Conventional public transport cannot always meet the diverse accessibility needs of people who live in remote rural areas, particularly those with mobility impairments, caused by a physical or mental condition, or who are for other reasons, unable to fully access public transport. Community transport provides an appropriate; much needed alternative to other modes of public transport.

In November 2000, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published the Rural White Paper “Our Countryside: the Future - A Fair Deal For Rural England”, setting out its aims for an improved quality of life for everyone living in the countryside. In terms of improving transport for rural areas, the DfT’s publication “Flexible Transport Services” followed in 2002, serving as guidance - for taxi and private hire operators, local authorities, transport partnerships and voluntary groups - on the types of flexible services that are available within the legislation.

The geographic profile of Warwickshire is extensively rural and community transport has been and continues to be an important component of policy on rural transport and rural access. That is why Warwickshire has developed a network of successful Rural Transport Partnerships. Our community strategy recognises too that the socio-economic dynamic underlying rural exclusion and isolation is sometimes identically at work or has parallels in urban settings. As the DfT emphasised in the foreword of Flexible Transport Services: “flexible transport services apply equally to urban areas”.

The Social Exclusion Unit of the Government’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister published ‘Making the Connections: Final Report on Transport and Social Exclusion’ in February 2003. The report addresses the issue of the accessibility of services and activities wherever people live. It calls for innovative ways of providing transport solutions - including door-to-door and demand-responsive bus services - as well as guidance on accessibility planning. More recently still, the regulations governing who may travel on services provided under a Section 19 permit have been relaxed to include geographically isolated communities as eligible groups.

Issued in November 2004, DEFRA’s Rural Services Review calls for more community transport to be used to meet local needs. Parish Councils are expected to contribute real evidence to local authority planning of services by carrying out accessibility audits to find out how easy or hard it is for local people to access services.

The Demand for Community Transport

The scale and distribution of the population in Warwickshire together with social characteristics will have a major impact on travel patterns and mode of travel. This has been taken into account when developing the Community Transport Strategy.  

Population

The population of Warwickshire has grown considerably over the last 25 years.  Since 1981 growth has slowed to approximately 6%, although this is still a higher rate than both the West Midlands region and England and Wales as a whole. The population of the County is currently about 519,000 (2003). A combination of population growth forecasts, continuing changes to household structure and composition, and the ongoing attraction of living and working in Warwickshire will clearly continue to provide challenges to sustaining the well being of the County.

Social Issues

People on low incomes are more dependent upon public transport to access employment, health, education, shopping and leisure opportunities and make up a higher than average proportions of the market for bus travel. The proportion of households on below average incomes varies between the districts in Warwickshire. Pockets of deprivation can be found within all districts. Some wards within the Warwickshire districts are amongst the 10% most deprived in the country. A number of other wards fall not too far outside this category.

Scheduled passenger transport provision

There is a limit to network coverage by scheduled services. 89% of the bus trips made in Warwickshire are with commercial operators who cannot profitably offer service routes where demand is low or scattered, especially in rural areas. The County Council continues to provide subsidised and socially necessary services using a range of transport provision and this includes, where appropriate, community transport services.   

Car Ownership

The proportion of households without a car in Warwickshire is 19%, which is below the national average of 27%.  However, the proportion of households possessing two cars at 39% is greater than the average for England of 29%.   Research has shown that the second car has the greatest effect on public transport, as this car is used for non-peak trips e.g. school runs, directly competing with public transport where trips are offered at marginal cost and spare capacity is available.

People without access to a car are four times more likely to use a public transport service than people with access to a car. Source: Warwickshire Statistics in West Midlands Travel Survey 2001

Even within car-owning households, not all members of the household may have access to a private vehicle during the day. For these and others without access to a car, travel opportunities can be constrained by the limitations of the current public transport network. For example the geographic and time of day coverage of bus and rail services can limit the abilities of those without a car to access employment, health, education, shopping and leisure opportunities.

Research suggests that the number of journeys per annum made by those without access to car is approximately 50% of those with a car. Source – Warwickshire Household Survey   

Existing Travel Patterns

Within Warwickshire, the main travel movements occur within and between the urban areas in the North/South corridor, i.e. Nuneaton, Bedworth, Coventry, Kenilworth, Leamington Spa and Warwick. There are also significant movements between Rugby and Coventry, and between Warwickshire and Birmingham. Parts of Western Warwickshire also experience a strong demand for travel towards Redditch.  Similarly, there are significant travel demands from parts of North Warwickshire to Tamworth.

Traffic growth across the County has generally followed national growth trends over recent years. Traffic growth has tended to reflect areas where significant development has occurred.

Future Travel Patterns

Future travel patterns in the County will respond to a number of factors, including:

• New development, both within the County and in surrounding areas (particularly Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation);
• Changes in work patterns, including more flexible working hours; and
• Changes in personal lifestyle choices.

Particular focus for development is likely to occur in the Coventry – Nuneaton Regeneration Zone, and the Solihull – Warwick Technology corridor. The Regional Spatial Strategy  also highlights Rugby as a potential growth area in the West Midlands Region.

Mode Choice

Car is the dominant mode of travel in Warwickshire. A higher percentage of people travel to work by car (79%) than the average for England and Wales (68%) while a lower percentage use bus to travel to work (4% compared with 8%). 

Demand for Community Transport

Community transport is capable of meeting the demand for high standards of public transport from anywhere in the community.

Warwickshire residents use community transport:

• If they are geographically isolated or without access to private or affordable transport; and
• when they require specialised or partly specialised services not usually available on conventional public transport.

The major users of community transport are older persons, people with frailty or mobility problems, people making health-related trips and younger persons. 

Individual users may be registered directly with community transport schemes or benefit from community transport services as clients of organisations or bodies such as disability and other support groups, youth and social clubs, educational and health establishments, voluntary car schemes and Social Services.

The work of the voluntary car schemes in delivering health-related transport is considerable, in some cases representing up to 80% of the trips they provide. 

To a large extent, the demand for community transport shadows the overall quantitative demand for public transport:

An analysis of the demand for public transport generally shows that parts of Warwickshire such as Nuneaton and Bedworth are characterized as areas of relatively high public transport use, whilst others, such as Stratford have lower levels of use. Bus services carry the majority of public transport users in Warwickshire, typically over a distance of two to three miles.

Bus demand has risen in response to the development of Quality Bus Corridors in Warwickshire. Passenger demand has increased by 30% on three of the four Quality Bus Corridors and by over 10% on the remaining corridor. This compares with national increases in bus demand of 1-2%.

Demand is ongoing for the users referred to above and additional demand for community transport is arising in other inter-linking and overlapping roles. Some have been made possible by legislative change or can embrace the County Council’s wider objectives, for example in:

• transport to employment, especially with adaptation to unusual working hours and shift patterns;
• providing access from isolated areas for all members of the community;
• establishing reliable, convenient services that encourage modal switch; and
• maximising current resource through partnership and review with statutory agencies.

The Need for a Better Community Transport Network

The current level of community transport use is determined by the services on offer and the County Council is convinced that a greater need exists than is being provided for by the existing community transport network. 

An improved transport network with integrated community transport services will be essential if the objectives of the Community Transport Strategy are to be achieved. It will enable people without access to a car or scheduled passenger transport services to more easily reach a wide range of education, training, employment, shopping and leisure opportunities and to reduce congestion.

Warwickshire residents have said that the main improvements, which will encourage them to use community transport more, are sustainable, reliable services using drivers and staff trained in customer care. This market research is detailed later in the ‘Customer Research’ section of this chapter.

Further influences on demand

Looking to the future, the community transport network will frequently need to be engaged in transport provision for new developments and lifestyle changes.   New employment initiatives, such as Hams Hall Business Park, the Solihull-Warwick Technology Corridor and Coventry – Nuneaton Regeneration Zone and increasingly flexible working hours for many jobs will need to be served effectively. The development of a “24 Hour / 7 Day” lifestyle is increasing the need for earlier and later transport – not only for people enjoying the extended facilities but also for those employed in providing them - serving cities such as Coventry and Birmingham and also larger towns such as Leamington Spa and Nuneaton.  The very close proximity to Warwickshire of Birmingham International Airport and several expanding universities will continue to drive the demand for flexible, demand-responsive services alongside more conventional bus travel both in terms of frequency, new routes and hours of operation.

Another factor set to influence the demand for community transport is the increasing proportion of retired and older persons in the population due to increased longevity. Their access needs as a group will be met by private transport to some degree. Yet access to private transport will vary between individuals according to personal characteristics such as economic activity, income, health, personal mobility and the level of support provided by family or friends. The more the need for public transport, the greater the expected demand for community transport. Despite accessibility improvements in the commercial bus fleet, it can be expected that some will continue to find it difficult to access fixed route public transport services for many of the same reasons that currently exist.

Our statutory partners, as providers and purchasers of transport, continuously review their arrangements. Guidelines have been issued to Health Authorities that affirm and encourage the agenda for joint working on accessibility solutions involving the NHS Trusts, PCTs and local transport authorities. Social Services departments increasingly investigate their clients’ transport and accessibility needs, researching and identifying initiatives such as independent travel and neighbourhood travel co-ordination. Crosscutting aims and objectives are generally more evident in the development of community transport activities. The role, for example, of Car Clubs in community transport can be explored alongside the established benefits they are expected to deliver in the work on sustainability, travel to work and travel planning undertaken by the County Council.   

Existing Community Transport Network

The flexibility and scope of community transport is apparent from the range of provision across the County summarised in the following list: 

• Section 19 and 22 minibus permit operations;
• Voluntary and social car schemes;
• Voluntary groups/day centres who operate their own minibus;
• Dial-a-ride and dial-a-bus projects;
• Commercial bus operation incorporating demand-responsive features, e.g., pre-booking, ‘roam-zones’, diversions from fixed routes;
• Moped loans;
• “Shopmobility” services;
• Minibus brokerage projects;
• Volunteer recruitment and training programmes;
• Some forms of community-based initiatives, e.g., informal car sharing networks between neighbours; and
• Some taxi services.

Community transport organisations offering brokerage and/or dial-a-ride services operate out of Stratford upon Avon, Warwick and Atherstone. Voluntary car schemes operate in all five of the County’s Districts and Boroughs – Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick, North Warwickshire, Nuneaton & Bedworth and Rugby. The County has developed a large network consisting of approximately 50 Flexibus services covering rural and urban communities. Ring-and-Ride schemes operate for specific isolated communities and a Section 22 Community Bus is established in the market town of Shipston in the extreme south of the County. The ‘Buster Werkenbak’ demand responsive access to employment in North Warwickshire is an innovative round-the-clock service. The ‘Wheels to Work’ moped loan scheme operates across the county with a fleet of up to 70, co-ordinated from its operational base in Rugby.

In addition to providing access to services in urban and local centres, demands exist to serve a number of major attractors, both in and outside the county including Walsgrave Hospital, Warwick Hospital, George Eliot Hospital, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Hams Hall, Birmingham International Airport, the National Exhibition Centre, Warwick University and Coventry University.

Many community transport services in Warwickshire are operated in the ‘not-for-profit’ sector, i.e. voluntary, community, charity and statutory. We, as the local transport authority, encourage and promote partnership working in the development and implementation of community transport solutions. We maintain close contact with our partners through Rural Transport Partnerships led by local Rural Transport Partnership Officers whose work is dedicated to researching and providing accessibility solutions for their communities.     

Figure 1 Warwickshire's Existing Community Transport Network

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The County Council, in line with the local and national policies on accessibility and social inclusion, provides socially necessary public transport provision. Subsidised services account for 11% of bus passenger journeys in total and include some unconventional and demand responsive schemes.   

The main challenges to achieving the aims of the community transport strategy are:

• For community and voluntary sector transport to be integrated with other modes of transport more effectively;
• For consistently high standards of operational efficiency and customer service to be evident and acknowledged by partners  throughout the community transport sector;
• For the potential of funding to be fully exploited through collaboration and co-ordination;
• For better co-ordination between community transport organisations;
• For improved comprehensive timetable information relating to community transport to be more readily available to potential and existing passengers; and
• For the profile of the community transport sector that undertakes effective work relating to socially excluded communities to be recognised.

There are also opportunities whereby community transport:

• Offers an opportunity for accessible travel for people who are socially excluded, mobility impaired or rurally isolated;
• Is operated by the community for the community and therefore is often more responsive to their needs than other modes of transport;
• Does not operate for profit and generally aims to design schemes that offer affordable transport and so help to meet the needs of those who cannot access other services; and
• Can interchange with other modes of transport by feeding passengers into the main transport corridors.

Customer Research

Ongoing consultation, market research, data collection and monitoring of community transport services are conducted in order to gain a better understanding of people’s needs and expectations. This research has provided a detailed picture of the different issues that influence the way people value public transport services in general and community transport services in particular. This has helped to produce a Community Transport Strategy which addresses the needs of current and potential users and which will deliver the desired outcomes.

Community Transport Strategy Consultation 2003

Respondents said that in Warwickshire, community transport should be organised according to need and could range from highly organised schemes to targeted local transport projects. Nearly always, the vehicles would be low floor or wheelchair accessible. Other features and characteristics that would make community transport attractive to use are:-

• Friendly, high-profile branded image;
• Reliable, efficient and professional services;
• Sustainable services;
• Integrated – feeding to other transport services;
• Affordable – fares in line with conventional bus fares;
• Good information and publicity; and
• Trained, caring staff.

From more general research, Warwickshire County Council surveys have found that:

• 30% of people thought that bus services had got worse;
• 48% thought that the cost of public transport had increased; and
• 50% thought that the lack of transport for people without cars was a major or a significant problem.

Considerable customer satisfaction does exist. For example:

• 43% of Warwickshire residents are satisfied with bus services (based on best value performance indicators surveys);
• 53% of bus users in Warwickshire are satisfied with bus services (based on citizens panel surveys); and
• 88% of bus users are satisfied with bus services operated under contract to Warwickshire County Council (based on customer comment cards).

The research producing these outcomes tends to be from surveys carried out on the high volume routes. The Community Transport Strategy itself has been developed in consultation with a wider range of customers, operators and stakeholders working, for example, through the Rural Transport Partnerships. Through this process, the Draft Strategy was carefully compiled over time before serving as the basic terms of reference for a formal countywide consultation in late 2003.

Over 400 organisations and user representatives with an interest in the provision of community transport were contacted and invited to take part:

• Disability groups – representing mobility, learning and sensory impairment;
• Older persons;
• Parish and District Councils;
• Bus User Groups;
• Rural Transport Partnerships;
• Rural Community Council;
• Community transport brokerages;
• Commercial bus operators;
• Volunteer Bureaux;
• Community Service Councils;
• Neighbouring Authorities;
• Taxi and PHV operators; and
• Statutory partners.

They were able to participate by completing a questionnaire or by attending a Focus Group. Warwickshire County Council have incorporated and addressed the results of the consultations and the customer research in the preparation of this strategy.

The Strategy

The vision of Warwickshire County Council’s Community Transport Strategy is:

‘An affordable, accessible, safe, convenient, environmentally friendly and integrated network of community transport services, capable of attracting an increasing market share for community transport thereby contributing to the achievement of the objectives in the Warwickshire’s Local Transport Plan 2005’.

The aim of the Community Transport Strategy is to grow the market for public transport in general and community transport services in particular by making the product attractive both to existing and potential users alike. It will achieve significant improvement in the provision of community transport services and facilities to the people of Warwickshire by following a customer-driven approach designed to identify and overcome barriers to the use of public transport.

Warwickshire’s Community Transport Strategy is a stand-alone strategy adopted at Cabinet level and is one of few, if not the only one, acquiring this status among the country’s local transport authorities. It seeks to provide a range of measures and proposals, which will result in the growth of the market for community transport services.

The major theme of the Community Transport Strategy is to encourage greater development and use of community transport in order to:

• Promote social inclusion by developing suitable community transport solutions, with the help of local communities, for those people either without access to other modes of transport, or for those people to whom community transport offers the most appropriate mode of travel;
• Widen access to services, employment, training, social and recreational facilities for socially excluded individuals / isolated communities; and
• Improve the integration of community transport with other modes of transport, to complement them and to increase the range of travel opportunities and options for Warwickshire residents.

The Community Transport Strategy Policies

Details of the specific policies are provided below.

Quality of Service

a. Affordable 

• The adult single or return fare should not exceed the full cost of the equivalent journey by car, unless justified as a premium fare in respect of a significantly faster journey time. The cost of the journey by car will be calculated in accordance with the current AA Petrol Car Running Costs for a car costing £10,000 with an annual mileage of 15,000. 

b. Accessible

• The design of bus stops, bus stations, pick-up and setting down points for community transport services and vehicles must enable passengers to board or alight from the vehicle who choose to do so unaided or with a reasonable level of assistance;
• Interchange infrastructure should provide for ‘seamless’ changes between transport modes. This should be assisted by good signage, information and appropriately designed infrastructure;
• Public transport services should be co-ordinated to encourage interchange consistent with the aims of the Public Transport Interchange Strategy, the Bus Strategy and the Passenger Rail Strategy with the object of increasing the range of travel opportunities and options for travellers; and
• Pedestrian and cycling routes to stops and interchanges shall accord with the standards set out in the Walking Strategy and the Cycling Strategy. The access to stops and interchanges, particularly by people who have difficulties because of health or mobility problems should be addressed. 

c. Available

• Community transport should provide coverage and a level of service, which contributes to or meets the minimum period of operation and service frequency standards set out in Bus Strategy Policy BS3. The access time to this level of bus service from the users point of origin should not exceed seven minutes.

d. Acceptable

• Community transport services should be of sufficient quality, particularly in terms of reliability and punctuality, which a potential passenger would be confident in relying on them;
• Stops, picking up and setting down points, bus stations and interchanges should provide both a perception and reality of personal safety and security. Reasonable shelter, comfort, suitable heating and ventilation for the season of the year should also be available where appropriate;
• Community transport operators will regard staff training as a necessary investment, not an avoidable cost. Staff should be helpful and courteous and have received customer service training including MiDAS minibus and PATS passenger assistance training where appropriate;
• The journey time of the service should be similar to the equivalent journey by car unless this can be justified by a significantly reduced fare; and
• The length of stay at destination enabled by the community transport service should, as a broad guide, be approximately two hours for a retail or health visit and approximately three and a half hours for an evening or Sunday visit.

e. Simple to Use

• Timetables, routes, booking arrangements, eligibility rules and fares and concessions should all be readily available, easy to understand and simple to use;
• Information systems should enable passengers to plan their journeys and provide increased public confidence as to the availability and reliability of services consistent with the Passenger Information Strategy;
• Full and timely information should be provided or be easily available to customers in case of disruption to services; and
• Integrated ticketing between modes including rail, bus and community transport services, where it is necessary to use different modes to complete a journey.

Figure 2 Warwickshire's Proposed Community Transport Network

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The Constraints

There are significant constraints to the County Council’s ability to deliver the Community Transport Strategy. It is therefore critical to fully explore and understand these in order to produce an Action Plan.

The key constraints are set out in Table 16.1:

The Effects of the Constraints

These constraints limit the County Council’s ability to deliver in full the significant improvements to the community transport network, which underpin the Community Transport Strategy.  For those areas where the constraints seriously inhibit the ability of the County Council to deliver the Community Transport Strategy, alternative measures will be used where possible to help progress towards the strategy objectives.  These are set out in the Action Plan in the following section.

The Action Plan

The Community Transport Strategy Action Plan has been developed such that it seeks to minimise the adverse impact of the constraints on the achievement of the policies in the Strategy. The Action Plan is geared towards meeting customer needs in a way that recognises existing constraints and opportunities.

The delivery of community transport based initiatives involves a wide range of stakeholders. In these circumstances, the timescales for the schemes and measures set out below will need to be flexible to take advantage of the implementation opportunities as they arise.

Action AP1 - Partnership

The County Council, working in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, the commercial bus industry, customers and other stakeholders, is the promoter of local network improvements.  The County Council also has a key role through its statutory responsibilities as Highway Authority and under the Transport Acts 1985 & 2000. The Rural Transport Partnerships serve as a key path by which it maintains partnership working on transport, access and social inclusion issues. 

Although some bus-based schemes are commercially viable and funded from within the bus industry, it is generally the case that those in the community transport sector are subsidised by the County Council or through other public funding sources. These schemes are often viable when the wider transport and socio-economic benefits are taken into account.  They do not have a cash value for the bus industry so the continuing element of public funding will be essential for these schemes to be delivered. The County Council will work with its partners to secure funding from the Local Transport Plan settlement and from other appropriate sources of funding, including contributions from land developers.

For each specific initiative the likely timescale for delivery is identified as short term, medium term or long term.  For the purposes of this strategy, short term will be the period to 2006, medium term will be the period from 2006-2008 and long term will be the period 2008 onwards.

Action AP2 – Quality of Service 

Action AP3 – Developing new community transport services