Councillor ‘shocked’ at threat to bus services

THAME Town Council’s Transport Representative, Cllr Mary Stiles, has said that she is ‘shocked’ to learn that subsidised bus routes to and from Thame are likely to be scrapped, leaving elderly people and students isolated and stranded.

Oxfordshire County County’s Cabinet yesterday voted to remove the subsidies that the council pays to commercial bus companies to operate low use routes. The council has said though that it is continuing to talk to these companies to see if they can take on any of the services commercially.

The Thame routes under threat are Carousel Buses Service 40, that runs between Thame and High Wycombe, the Vale Travel Service 124, that runs between Watlington and Thame, the Vale Travel Service 120, that runs between Thame and Princes Risborough and the Service 123, Thame local service bus.Also, the first and last 280 journeys on Sundays and Bank Holidays would be affected.

Cllr Stiles said: ” I am shocked at this news. It makes a mockery of public consultation and I think that Parish Transport reps will be very angry at our next meeting with OCC, which I will be attending soon on behalf of Thame Town Council.

“Local people need these services which are subsidised by OCC, but as part of the consultation suggestions were made whereby some bus services could be changed to save money e.g. not duplicating the 40 and 123 through Towersey. When I travelled on the 123 to meet passengers and discuss with them OCC’s proposals, we followed the 40 bus from Chinnor to Thame via Towersey!

“The people I met all need the subsidised buses to get to and from work or college or, if elderly or disabled, to get from the eastern end of Thame into the centre. This is vitally important in order to prevent isolation and the health problems that can result from it. I shall be doing all I can to lobby for these services to be retained. OCC’s cabinet say that they may be able to avoid cutting bus subsidies, if Government provide more money. Therefore I urge Cllr Nimmo-Smith and the Leader of the Council to be like Oliver Twist and ask for more!”

The cuts are aimed at saving the council around £million 3.5. It is hoping that voluntary groups will take up some of the slack by providing similar schemes to the Dial-A-Ride service, which it also wants to scrap, and says that some funding may be available for such schemes where a proven need is identified in an area.

‘Difficult choices’

Cllr David Nimmo Smith, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “As a county council we are faced with very difficult choices. We are now in our sixth year of cuts since 2010. We’ve stopped using more than 100 properties, reduced our staffing by 30 per cent and our senior management by 40 per cent since 2010. We’re sharing services with other councils.

“We have a legal and moral duty to support the most vulnerable in society – that means adults who are in our care because they need help washing, dressing, eating and other personal care, and children at risk of abuse and neglect. Almost 50 per cent of our budget goes on care services for adults and children. We need to make savings in other areas to fund those vital services.

“We have already successfully made big savings by running and funding supported transport services more efficiently and have plans to do much more. To make the remaining savings we have consulted on options to either reduce or end the subsidies we pay to bus companies while discussing with them the prospects for them continuing to run services. It is really important to understand that more than 90 per cent of bus services in Oxfordshire would be unaffected by these proposals.

“We’re in the process of saving £290m from 2010 to 2018 and may have to save as much as £50m on top of this.”

What next?

This recommendation will now be fed in to the council’s overall budget process, with a final decision being taken in early 2016.

Under the cabinet’s approved option, bus services would cease at different times throughout the Summer and Autumn 2016 depending on contract termination times.