Agenda item

To receive any public questions or statements submitted three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

Two questions were received from Andrew Strong. The questions submitted and responses provided are as follows:

1.         Paragraph 2.5 of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme says: “The Scheme will have no end date, but progress will be reviewed by SCC on a quarterly basis and publicly accessible reports will be prepared on a routine basis. The review will also consider and report against BSIP targets outlined in Scheme Annex A.”

I have been unable to find any reports of such reviews, even though five should have been done by now. Please advise me how the public can access the reports.

The BSIP funded schemes are reviewed on a quarterly basis and progress reported to the DfT as per their specific reporting requirements. With regard to reports being prepared on a routine basis, the intention is to report annually against BSIP targets as part of the BSIP Annual Review. The BSIP was updated last October but only at a high level as we had not received the funding to start delivering the schemes at that point. That version is available on the Somerset Council webpage. This years annual review was due in October, but the DfT have requested we put this on hold whilst they review their guidance. Therefore, a decision was taken to wait until the new guidance is released to ensure we are delivering against any revised requirements from the DfT.

2.          First West of England Ltd has been given approval by the Traffic Commissioner to use Wells Bus Station as an Operating Centre for 6 vehicles. I presume that Somerset Council, as the landowner, has approved this and is receiving payment to compensate for the additional wear and tear on the road surface in the bus station. Please confirm that the Council is open to negotiation with other bus operators -who may be interested in setting up operations in the county - for use of its land as operating centres.

          With the internal (First) transfer of the operation of service 75 and most of service 29 from Buses of Somerset to First West of England we received a request from First West of England to use Wells Bus Station to store up to six vehicles overnight as we understood there was insufficient space at First West of England’s Wells depot. Wells bus station is now owned by Somerset Council and internal discussions with our property team resulted in our making an offer the First West of England to allow vehicles operated under contract to Somerset Council to be parked on the site on a temporary basis at the owner’s risk. This was done to ensure that services transferred could operate reliably from the date of transfer and as this site is for the primary use of bus and coach services then this was deemed appropriate use of this land. However, this should not be considered as the Council being prepared to allow any of it’s premises to be used as an operating centre for buses and any further approaches from any operator would be considered on a case by case basis as any site requested might not be suitable or have sufficient space for the overnight parking of buses.