Failure of "Fairer Fairs" scheme (South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats)

Failure of "Fairer Fairs" scheme

November 8, 2010 8:14 AM

bus 49 Young people in Wiltshire get a bad deal from bus operators, often finding themselves having to pay full adult fares from relatively young ages. In February this year Wiltshire Assembly of Youth, together with WC officers and councillors, agreed that a county wide system of 'fairer fares' across the primary transport providers would benefit young people using the buses and the companies providing the service as cheaper fares would encourage a greater number of under 18s to use buses.

A 'statement of intent' affirmed: "Over the next six months we will work together towards a 'fairer transport deal' for young people in Wiltshire up to the age of 18." Signatories to the statement included Stagecoach South and Stagecoach Swindon, the Wiltshire and Dorset Bus Co., Wiltshire councillors Richard Gamble and Richard Clewer, David Whewell, WC head of youth work and Liam Tatton-Bennett on behalf of the voluntary sector.

Wiltshire councillor Trevor Carbin asked the cabinet member responsible for buses Lionel Grundy what has been achieved to help young people since these commitments were made, given that more than six months have now elapsed.

In his reply Cllr Grundy pointed out that the Council has allocated £5000 to each of the Area Boards for locally devised schemes to improve transport for young people, and gave some examples of how this has been used.

He also explained that Wilts & Dorset have introduced an enhanced young peoples' fares scheme with discounts up to and including age 18, valid at any time of day (their previous policy, which had attracted considerable criticism over the years, was that child fares were only available up to the 15th birthday, and were not available before 9.00am on weekdays). This has been funded by reducing the amount of discount offered compared with the previous child fare.

Stagecoach West have advised that, as a result of pressure from young people in both Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, they will be offering a promotional 'Mega-weekend' ticket for young people up to and including 18, initially for a trial weekend later this month (19th - 21st November). This will give unlimited travel on Stagecoach West buses for the whole weekend for a price of £5. If this is successful they intend to repeat the trial for another weekend this winter. If the trials result in increased use without losing income, they will consider a longer term experiment to offer off-peak discount fares for young people up to age 18 (the current age limit for child fares is 16). The company have no plans to offer discounted travel for 16-18 year olds at peak times.

There have been discussions with another major bus company (not one of the signatories to the 'statement of intent', and who currently offer child fares up to age 16) who say they can not at present afford to increase the age limit to 18, as they have less scope to offset the cost and can not risk reducing income at a time when they already face significant losses of revenue as a result of reductions in central government funding.

"Clearly these piecemeal and limited schemes are nothing like the county-wide fair fares concept proposed originally. Yet again young people are getting a bad deal from bus operators and the council," said Cllr Carbin.

It could though get worse. Cllr Grundy went on to explain that, "The 20% reduction in Bus Service Operators Grant announced in the Spending Review, and the revised guidance on OAP concessionary fares reimbursement recently announced by the Department for Transport that will significantly reduce operators income, is causing great concern in the industry and is likely to result in across the board fares increases and withdrawals of service; in addition to any reduction in local authority funding for bus services. Operators are understandably reluctant to risk losing income given these uncertainties."

South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats