19 March 2015
Good news below as we are to keep the current bus services as the council have agreed to continue with funding.
At the bottom of the page is a link for Community Transport Information for those who need it.Cabinet is set to confirm it'll continue funding local bus services after taking on board results of a public survey.
We have to make cuts of £157m by 2018 and to help make these savings it had been proposed to take out £3.5m to subsidise the local bus network.
A survey was carried out last year asking local residents for their views on this proposal.
Now councillors are set to confirm they will put in £3.5m from reserves to keep council-supported buses running until 2017.
Most bus services are run commercially where the routes and fares are set by local bus companies. But around 15% are paid for by us. Around 3.7m journeys are made on these services annually.
Between October and December 2014 local residents were asked to complete a survey telling us about their journeys and the importance of the services they used.
Following this survey, Cabinet announced in January it would continue to pay for 141 local bus services − typically Sunday, early morning and evening and rural services which if withdrawn would leave some communities with no or limited buses.
The survey also asked about community transport services, including dial-a-bus shopping services and journeys to healthcare appointments − known as aCTive Travel − and how important these were to people.
The county has six community transport schemes which provide these trips for people unable to use mainstream public transport because of mobility difficulties or because they live in areas with limited access to local buses.
It had been proposed to reduce funding for Community Transport in 2015/16 and to withdraw all funding in 2016/17.
But the council has now decided to provide more funding and is working closely with the Community Transport schemes to ensure services can continue to run up until April 2016.
Councillor Dean Collins, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Infrastructure, said:
"We know how getting out and about is a top priority for people in remaining independent and it is clear from the results of this survey how important the services funded by the council are, including those for some of our more vulnerable residents.
"Times ahead will be tough because the fact is that we must make savings. But we recognise the importance of local bus services and we are pleased to be able to continue to fund them for now."
Councillor Collins added: "We also continue to work together with all of Derbyshire's community transport providers and colleagues in the health sector to run the best level of services that we can in the coming year."
Link for information on Community Transporthttp://www.derbyshirect.co.uk/
Topic: Local bus services set to continue (Read 1148 times)