Handy Bus Club Update

I was asked in a letter if there was going to be a bus service for Laxfield, Heveningham, Huntingfield and Walpole anytime soon.


The present situation is that Laxfield and Peasenhall Parish Councils and Suffolk County Council have been offered by me - the instigator - a ‘Handy Bus’ service, which I trialled for three months to replace the service they had which has been cut, leaving many people without any public transport. In this model, a local Community Transport Operator provides vehicles and drivers and local volunteers are bus conductors; what we have called a 'Bus Buddy'. Due to the legal complexity of operating a scheduled community minibus, the Handy Bus must be a separate entity from the CTO and is a social club that charters their bus from them.


Cllr Guy McGregor - the SCC porfolio holder for transport - has said to Laxfield that he would "look into" the scheduled service which they have demanded to be replaced and it is intimated that it would be provided though a Demand Responsive Transport operator, such as the local Pathfinder, which is supported entirely by Suffolk County Council. 


Such a service enabled this way would therefore not have the user-determined features nor bring the social care benefits that the Handy Bus model has demonstrated. I honestly don’t know how SCC can get around the regulations either. DRT works according to one set of VOSA rules and the ‘staged’ services, the regular sort of buses, have another. You can’t, as far as I understand it, have one do the other except with the Handy Bus model - which can be applied to several modes of transport.


Disregarding these technicalities: the choice for Laxfield and other communities needing access to Halesworth is to either lobby their county councillors to provide a service through the Pathfinder or have SCC contract someone else or form a Handy Bus Club and operate a service themselves.


The first two options would enable use of a OAP concession pass and thus be free to the expected majority of passengers. For the latter to be sustainable for a Laxfield, Peasenhall and Halesworth service, it would require a subscription of ten passengers paying around £5 per week, which is much cheaper than a shared taxi or per-mile charge of a volunteer community car scheme. A Handy Bus is also a more efficient use of a volunteer driver's time.


However, if a funder was prepared to give ongoing support for a Handy Bus, then passenger charges would be whatever the difference was between costs and their subsidy. The social care benefits that the Handy Bus model brings can obtain other kinds of funding not available to transport operators and thus there is a good case for support of a Handy Bus from the parish precept.


There is the third possibility that SCC might offer a contract to Halesworth Area Community Transport instead of the local DRT operator to provide a scheduled service to Laxfield etc. This is something that HACT would consider very carefully and I understand it is equipped to do. However, SCC has been reticent to support scheduled services - which HACT provide - since it removed subsidy to commercial operators because SCC policy in the 'New Strategic Direction' is committed to DRT operations. 


At the heart of it is the County Council's belief that the DRT model will deliver cost savings over subsidy of scheduled operators. HACT, the Handy Bus' preferred vendor, was not operationally equipped for DRT while the local Pathfinder and other operators were supplied by SCC with new vehicles to operate DRT to replace the scheduled services removed from the timetables. It's the DRT and not the 'staged' community transport operators that have received SCC funding to replace the services that commercial operators withdrew once their SCC subsidy was cut. However the new technology supposed to enable more efficient DRT booking  has not yet materialised, that provision too apparently has since been cut.


It was to cut through this muddle that I proposed and trialled the alternative ‘Handy Bus’ model, a hyper-local, scheduled service with the ability to vary the route, running to a timetable that users determine, so a bit like a DRT and a bit like the ordinary bus offering passengers the confidence they can start and complete their journeys. This difficulty in ensuring passenger confidence is just one drawback of DRT.


A nascent Handy Bus Club - if it serves Peasenhall too - could have some start-up funding from the Time For You Project to cover insurance etc. The Handy Bus trials lined up drivers and vehicles from HACT but it now needs to recruit five trustees and about eight volunteers to operate it, if those volunteers were to give 4 hours on one day per month. 


Several people are ready and willing but to date we only have two keen volunteers of the eight needed to make a start and potentially three out of five trustees. I consider it is the dangling promise of SCC to provide some kind of scheduled services that has squelched passengers and communities interest or initiative in achieving a service on the Handy Bus model. Why go to the trouble of running your own bus service on your own terms - free from the threats of a subsidy withdrawal by local government - when the council still could provide something?


So I wonder when will SCC declare what they are going to do for Laxfield and the communities between Halesworth so we can get on with providing it or get on with our lives if the Handy Bus is not going to be part of it?

Current transport issues in Halesworth and Waveney

I glanced an item in the Beccles and Bungay Journal this week (not yet online) that the Beccles Welfare Vehicle has rebranded itself as the Beccles Community Bus to boost bookings. It's news to me this bus even existed, perhaps that's there's no website for it has been a factor. This is a 12 seat minibus owned by Beccles Town Council which is run by a trust so users have to join it for £1 and then they can hire the bus for 60p per kilometre. This should not be confused with Beccles and Bungay Area Community Transport.


It isn't clear if this hire includes a driver (as comparable HACT charges do) or whether the hirer's driver must have a D1 license and a MiDAS certificate or not. It looks attractive though, for example people without a bus service could hire this minibus to collect them and take them into Beccles for shopping. If they got 8 passengers and the bus travelled 40 km, each passenger would only pay a fare of £3 per person. A 1:8 volunteer/user ratio is very good considering most 'Community Car' schemes operate a 1:1 service and a single passenger pays for that at around 30 pence per kilometre.
     
But if you have a plan for communities to hire their own minibuses and get volunteer drivers to replace services cut by the county council, it's not just that easy. If you passed the UK test before 1997 a D1 category on a driving license is automatic but if you passed the test at 17 or so after then, you could be about 30 years old now but not have it. This is a obstacle for Community Transport Operators to recruit volunteer drivers to provide public transport as without a D1 you must have a PSV license and those cost around £1000 per person in fees and training.


My correspondence with the DVLA confirms that a Handy Bus Club driver doesn't need a D1 nor MiDAS certificate to drive a minibus if used for that service model. 

The Beccles Community Bus hire contact is Michael Doherty 01502 716324 or michael.doherty@onetel.com (he’s also Beccles town councillor). This situation would be ideal for Beccles or anywhere else to start up a Handy Bus operation to use a surplus vehicle that is otherwise costing money and having spare vehicles available nearby builds resilience for all the local CTO services.

A bus passenger reported to me that Anglian Buses have recently begun a policy of charging a child fare to riders presenting a OAP concession pass before 9.30 AM (unless exempt route). That is much fairer than charging full fare and response to this indicates that most concession holders would gladly pay something towards their fares.

A paper on ‘Halesworth Integrated Sustainable Transport Strategy’ was asked for and provided to Halesworth's county councillor Tony Goldson by Halesworth Town Plan Group to inform a bid to the central governments Sustainable Local Transport Fund. Halesworth's proposal asked for £150,000 to pilot extending the local area served by community transport and create a brand new cycle route towards the coast avoiding the B1123, (which is something I myself have been championing for several years.) It has been reported to me that Councillor Goldson's response was that "it was not considered of sufficient priority for the national bid but would be included in bids for Suffolk funds in the future..." It needs to be determined whether that was his decision or that of the SCC portfolio holder which would be Cllr Guy Mcgregor.

There was an article recently in the Beccles and Bungay Journal  and similarly in the EADT about the isolation people are feeling now many have lost their bus services. It's not online but the headline was “Fear as village folk lose lifeline” but in response; Derek Johnson from Shadingfield has started a petition for a 'Bus For Us' because Demand Responsive Transport, or what he calls community taxis, don't work. The Beccles & Bungay Journal has more information on the petition. When I showed the petition to a Suffolk County Council transport officer, they said "oh, I wondered when the protests like the libraries were going to start for the buses..." Both Derek Cocker and Guy McGregor have frequently stated to me that DRT is the only solution on offer and as SCC have lately made significant investments in Community Transport Operators who are prepared to run buses on a DRT model, many independent parties consider it undeniable, on the evidence of their actions alone, that their position won't countenance support for those CTOs who won't.

People are also complaining about the new 520 Anglian Bus timetable as it is no longer coordinated with as many trains at Halesworth as before, which is rather more the fault of the train company National Express than the bus company.  You now can't get down to Ipswich or London on an off-peak fare nor home from the station by bus in the evening. This link is something that took years of lobbying to achieve, and ironically, £6500 was just spent on providing a bus shelter at the station and thousands more to create a turning space for the buses. Many passengers for Southwold used to use this service. Now there is even more parking pressure on Halesworth Rail Station from people now using their cars to meet the train which is exacerbated by Waveney District Council removing several free car parks in the town and raising parking charges to a multiple of 65p, determined no doubt with the mendacious knowledge most people will have to pay with £1 coins.

There have also been complaints that the new bus schedules and service cuts mean that students attending college in Norwich can’t get home after classes, putting more people on the road driving empty cars to collect their children in rush hour after classes or less affluent children dropping out. Many passengers have complained that the 17.45 service on the Anglian 588 from Norwich to Bungay but supposed to continue on request to Halesworth isn't being honoured and the 16.05 through service has been leaving Norwich early. Fact is, Halesworth is cut off from Norwich after 5 pm and has been for years. I myself have been stranded in Norwich when the 588 is suddenly cancelled or has departed early. I tried a few times taking a bus from Norwich to Beccles in the hope I could then catch the Beccles to Halesworth train but this route requires covering 3/4 mile between the station and the bus stop in about eight minutes.

Also on train services it appears that signalling works for the Beccles Loop have already begun work at Saxmundham though the installation of the lifts at Ipswich Station is now behind schedule and they won't open before June. Without through-trains either, this is a great barrier to people travelling with luggage. It has been widely reported that National Express have lost their franchise for East Anglian services. No doubt followers of the Twitter hashtag #nxeafail are rejoicing.

Southwold Town Council have given and applied to SCC for match funding for an alleged total of £40,000 subsidy from public funds to remove bus services from Southwold's High Street to ease congestion in the town. It seems to me to be backward thinking if the congestion is caused by cars not buses. I suggested on my Twitter stream a ban on cars would be better. Again the story is not online but the Lowestoft Journal of April 1 had the headline "Bus ban plans get green light". Now people will have to walk about several hundred yards further to access the shops, something many older people will find difficult to do. My twitter complaint of this madness was responded to by the local MP Therese Coffey that "issue was one-way route for buses disrupting residents". I understand that a local CTO offered Southwold TC their expertise to set up a minibus service on a circular route to enable shoppers and residents from Reydon and outlying parts to access the town without causing congestion but no action has been taken.

Rifle Hall Community Day

The Halesworth Rifle Hall has been taken on by a trust who are now raising funds to restore it back into a community centre after years of neglect by Waveney District Council. 


Today (April 9th) the Rifle Hall Trust and several other community groups held an exhibition of their projects and showcased their opportunities for volunteering. 


The Handy Bus posters and leaflet elicited many comments and I had long conversations with two people about the scheme and how they could help. We left on promises to get in touch with me. I hope these brave souls don't get cold feet and will join the other volunteers, it would mean we have reached about 50% of the personnel needed.

Handy Bus Club - Important Announcement

Wednesday 30^th March was the last scheduled run of the Handy Bus Club under the aegis of Suffolk ACRE and the Time For You Project. At this time there will be no service in April.

The service has not ended, in as much as those involved so far wish to carry on but we don’t yet have the resources to continue. We have secured our vehicles, drivers, passengers and seed money. We now need to recruit more trustees to form an association (or charity) and a larger cadre of volunteers to be the ‘conductors’ for what has proved to be a very useful service.

Ideally there is a local person who will volunteer to lead on this process. Besides the ranks of the newly retired (or redundant!) this is a great opportunity for a young person to enhance their CV. Naturally that volunteer would have support from several agencies.

Please see the prior posting for a discussion paper on how we can achieve our ambitions

http://handybus.blogspot.com/2011/03/future-of-handy-bus.html

If the Handy Bus has enough resources to serve Halesworth and Sibton/Peasenhall, it can easily include a service to Laxfield too. That applies to Yoxford and other communities nearby as well. The Handy Bus Club model is very adaptable to numerous localities.

Open meetings of the Handy Bus Club at Halesworth Library will continue on the 2^nd Wednesday of the month (13^th April) from 1-2 PM, RSVP is desired to avoid disappointment if there are extraordinary circumstances. 

If you see a Handy Bus timetables posted somewhere, please be kind enough to remove it. For removal of doubt, they were always dated as ‘valid to’.

Please get in touch if you can support us in any way:

Nat Bocking

Community Development Researcher

Suffolk ACRE

BRIGHTSPACE

160 Hadleigh Road

Ipswich

Suffolk

IP2 0HH

nat.bocking@suffolkacre.org.uk

Reception         01473 345300

Mobile              07787 258137

The Future of the Handy Bus

Wednesday March 30th was the last scheduled run of the Handy Bus Club under the aegis of Suffolk ACRE and the Time For You Project.

This is not the Handy Bus obituary. We haven’t shut it down but we have now reached a peak in the foothills of the mountain ahead. This is where we have to take a moment to stop and look at where we’re going.

We carried round-trip three people today and a guide dog from Peasenhall into Halesworth to do their shopping. Two of our passengers are disabled though you’d be hard pressed to notice how the other one is but their condition prevents them from driving. One passenger is also a family carer. We all had a jolly chat riding along in the bus about nesting birds and who was driving the slow tractor ahead of us until I broke the news. It was upsetting to hear this service might end just as it was getting started because my employment contract has reached its end. Another passenger had just booked a dental appointment and had expected to use our bus. Before our bus existed, they had great difficulty going to a dentist.

The genesis of the Handy Bus Club was the ‘Time For You’ study commissioned by the Department of Health into the needs of rural ‘hidden’ family carers (those not known to care agencies) in the Sibton and Peasenhall area and funding was given to find ways of locally enabling breaks from caring for them. Once I had found these hidden carers – many more than we expected - I learned from them that giving them a short holiday didn’t factor high in their priorities, they had many other unmet basic needs. And in the spirit of teaching someone to fish rather than just giving them a fish; we looked at how to harness the local resources available to meet those basic needs first. For example, we connected the village hall to broadband Internet so that computer and work skills training will be held there soon. Family carers and everyone else in that area don't have to travel to Lowestoft for them any more. Like food and shelter, transportation is very high up the pyramid of basic needs because without it; many other needs cannot be met.

There are mountains of knowledge on what happens when people can’t access essential services; their health and well-being suffers and so their needs increase, then eventually the public purse has to pay to treat acute needs that could have been prevented. Though I knew the time frame was short, I had to try something even though it might fail. If we failed, I would ensure we learned something. Besides that buses to Halesworth were very infrequent (the town that people preferred for services in but only those with cars had access to), I also found that for a host of other reasons, both ‘staged’ and DRT buses were often inaccessible to carers and vulnerable and isolated people. So I conceived of the Handy Bus: a bus that carries things and knowledge as well as people that offers neighbourly assistance so its users can obtain what they need.

Although I hoped we would have achieved more by now, I have learned that you can’t change a culture overnight. I will report to the Department of Health that enabling a more useful model of public transport will make a difference to carers and others well-being and that scheduled bus services are preferred to modes requiring advance booking. I have found as well that a friendly, helpful person as a ‘conductor’ on a bus encourages bus usage and people’s participation in the activities they can reach on the bus. I don’t think the Big Society will cut through all the red tape we encountered fast enough for commercial operators to try such ideas soon. However, a Handy Bus Club can try them today. If we can show it works, then commercial operators might give it a try too.

At this moment, we have been asked if we can expand the Handy Bus into Laxfield as well which would also serve hamlets along the B1117 where many people are now isolated from local shops and essential services by the axing of the 532 service. This is attractive because there is not a big enough pool of potential human resources to operate a Handy Bus service solely between Sibton, Peasenhall and Halesworth but there might be enough if Laxfield was included. Then these communities linked by the Handy Bus might be able to work together to meet their needs.

Until now the Handy Bus has been in practice a free service. We chose to honour any kind of concession pass and it was too much red tape to charge fares anyhow. But to continue, we will have to make a charge and we think a subscription paid whether you travel or not is fairest, as we can spread our costs amongst people who won’t travel but are prepared to subscribe as a kind of charity or to support a family member. Also, this makes the cost of revenue collection very low and simple to administrate.

With three months of operating data, I find a service on our scale will not make a profit from an affordable fare and so it would require about 50% subsidy (around £3500 per year) or the bus would have to find additional ways to make money, such as by making deliveries or running errands or contracting to deliver a social care role. But this is exactly what a Handy Bus can do. Up till now, fare subsidies of 50% have been considered low in rural transport. We don't want to put anyone out of business but in the past, Suffolk County Council has contracted for around £75,000 for three years in a limited area a statutory task we are confident of providing too, if they met our revenue shortfall. Plus, by chartering spare vehicles from local community transport operators that are otherwise depreciating and under-used, we are a revenue stream that will support other community services in a true and rare win-win scenario.

By operating as a non-profit association, by using volunteer drivers and chartering vehicles from a community transport operator, the Handy Bus Club can operate differently, in ways that allows the users to determine the schedule they want from month to month. But it does mean that we can’t claim back from concession passes (only about 70% of the published fare is refunded by the way) so every passenger has to pay for it until the service can be registered with the Transport Commissioner. But isn’t it an attractive proposition for rural villages to have a bus service of their own which is not subject to the whims of the County Council? Nearly every passenger the Handy Bus has carried and 75 other local bus passengers we surveyed said they would gladly pay a fare, if that’s what it took to provide them with a bus service.

At this moment the Handy Bus has some seed money to cover the basic overheads of insurance, it has a vehicle supplier, it has volunteer drivers and it has growing passengers. What it doesn’t have is enough people willing to give a few hours a month to run it. Because of their age and needs, such as caring for someone, we can’t expect that all our passengers will be able to help run the service, though everyone can contribute in some way.

What the Handy Bus needs most of all is people who understand that without a practicable bus service, their villages and their neighbours’ villages quickly cease to be viable places to live. That starts with the most vulnerable people in our society, the young, the old, the unwell and those caring for them but once communities begin to collapse; nobody is insulated from it. I have met a few people, including elected representatives, that don't believe that community transport is necessary but ask an estate agent how the extent of local transport and the existence of ‘good neighbour’ schemes affect rural property values. So it basically comes down to everyone making a simple choice; give a little of your time now or pay much more with real money later. The Handy Bus is a simple and relatively cheap way to help build sustainable, resilient communities that people will value and invest in.

But then I have also learned from this project that if you try to fix a problem in society, you might hold a mirror up to someone in power. Innovation disrupts the status quo. Whilst we agitate to establish an accessible scheduled bus service for everybody where none existed before, Suffolk County Council has withdrawn support for scheduled services and imposed Demand Responsive Transport as a replacement. How our ambition sits with some detractors' stated belief in 'Big Society' provision has yet to be resolved.

Advocating for the Handy Bus has been taken by some as asserting an uncomfortable fact that DRT is not accessible to many users and does not fulfil its promise as a replacement. Some potential supporters are beholden to those feeling threatened by our presence. Some of those we expected more cooperation from seem to consider us as competition that will affect their own interests. It is naive not to consider there is a political dimension in everything. Our position was always clear from the outset: the Handy Bus aims to enable people to use all forms of public transport. By travelling with a person prepared to assist them if need be, someone who is isolated or someone recovering may regain the confidence to use public transport. Our bus buddy acts as an information point about all forms of local transport. As our service is quite limited, we want to enable travel to a destination with one mode and travel back with another if necessary. Our passengers have a person on their bus who knows their local area and can help plan their journey, rather than waiting for a response from a far-removed call centre. Only eight percent of local bus passengers we surveyed can send a SMS message. What rural communities need is a mix of transport options. The Handy Bus fills in service gaps that had existed long before and have recently got wider.

Some people have said to me “I’m not concerned about buses, I have a car…” That sounds reasonable until I point out that some Handy Bus passengers also have cars but some are getting to an age where they shouldn’t drive or will soon be unable to. Some appreciate they don’t have the bother of parking on crowded market day and by leaving the car at home, they are helping support their community too. What will life be like for those more fortunate when they too cannot drive?

Others parish representatives have raised concerns that pensioners have to pay for a bus when the County Council’s concession pass entitles them to free travel, though these are mostly people who don’t use any buses now. To them we must point out we don’t have any choice in this unless the Government changes the rules, but as an entirely voluntary non-profit association, all profits will be passed to the members. We will charge what it costs, nothing more.

When I make a ‘pitch’ about continuing the Handy Bus Club to people, I am always asked a whole barrage of questions about what times the service will run, where will it go? People are interested in a service they need but are not asking themselves “how can I help run it” or “how do I help”? The answer to everyone asking for details is: what do you want it to be? How can you help us make that happen? From the last three month’s trial, I and the other volunteers know what it takes to provide the service and are confident that everyone can participate. With an open mind and a bit of trust in our fellow man or woman, satisfactory answers to everything presently unknown will be found.

From now on, these will be our ambitions:

Recruit more people to be a Bus Buddy. They ride on the bus for free in return for acting as a bus conductor helping passengers and by being a good neighbour doing errands for those in need and being a point for social contact to tell people about the opportunities and services around them. The Bus Buddy is in touch with passengers needing pick-up by mobile telephone. Each ‘shift’ for a Buddy is about four hours. They could start and finish from the stop nearest them.

Recruit more people to be Handy Bus drivers. If you passed your car test before 1997, you can drive a Handy Bus without needing another test. Each driving ‘shift’ is about one and a half hours, or both shifts can be done over four hours. They start/finish in Halesworth and our drivers have car parking and other facilities provided.

Recruit more people to hold the Handy Bus phone on a rota once a week. They are our call centre. They will take bookings for the Bus Buddy or the bus pick-up off the route during business hours when the bus isn’t running but when it is, they will pass the calls to the Bus Buddy. These phone holders could also do the basic Handy Bus Club administration. If someone has experience as a club treasurer, it won’t be any more difficult than that.

Our volunteers will be mentored by Suffolk ACRE and given appropriate training through SAVO, MiDAS and Suffolk ACRE and other resources.

We will recruit trustees and adopt a constitution. At first we shall be an association and when necessary a charity. We will open bank accounts and purchase liability insurance and produce and adopt all the policies community schemes need to nowadays.

Ideally we will find someone willing to accept the challenge of leading this for as long as it takes or at least three months to start. It wouldn’t be 24/7 and could fit in with another project or part-time job. Perhaps you know someone with some time on their hands and with suitable experience or, perhaps better in the long term, an ambitious un/under employed person over 21+ with a driving license, desperate for work experience that would be significant on their C.V. Perhaps a foreign student would like to come to Suffolk on their Gap Year? I don’t think you can get much more real-world management experience than setting up a social enterprise transport company.

Then, if you really want the detail, the Handy Bus could serve Peasenhall, Sibton, Laxfield and communities along the way twice a day on Wednesdays in the morning and around midday to start with. With enough volunteers and passengers, we could increase the service to 3x a day and 2x a week and so on. The initial schedule would enable a visit of about two hours in Halesworth. From between 9.30 to 10 AM the Handy Bus would call at all its scheduled stops and any requested stops and drop passengers in Halesworth. To save money, IF the Handy Bus has not taken any passengers into to town in the morning, it will not run past ALL the scheduled stops in the afternoon but will stand-by to run to wherever it is called for, so that people arriving in the town by train or on the 588 from Norwich might get home.

Now, can we have your support to achieve this? If you are interested, please get in touch with me as soon as possible at 01473 345300 or nat.bocking@suffolkacre.org.uk

Laxfield Parish AGM report

At a parish and public meetings about local bus services, Laxfield's County Councillor Guy McGregor, the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Roads, Transport and Planning, stated he would return to Laxfield on 28th March to speak to the Parish Council's AGM after looking into the provision of a regular scheduled service between Laxfield and Halesworth which had been demanded after the withdrawal of the county's support for the present service at a public meeting on March 10^th 2011.


John Treadway, a resident of Laxfield and a volunteer driver with Halesworth Community Transport attended the AGM on Monday evening and supplied these notes:

About 45 people attended the meeting. The bus services for Laxfield was the last item on the agenda. On Councillor McGregor's behalf, Neville Jephcote, the Passenger Transport Development Officer for Suffolk County Council, said that:

1. There would be another DRT service probably starting in June with new bus possibly called the 'Hoxmere Hopper' which would cover an area from Hoxne, Stradbroke and Laxfield. The name and the service area has not been finalised.

2.  He is aware that there is a problem with people from Laxfield having a regular timetabled access to Halesworth, the preferred shopping venue for many villagers (i.e. more essential services and shops than Framlingham).

3. He and Councillor McGregor are looking very urgently into finding some funding or some way to provide a one day a week bus to Halesworth ideally on a Wednesday which they know is market day. It would travel to Halesworth around 9.45 and return leave Halesworth about 12.15. 

4. This bus would not cover either Beccles or Lowestoft as before.

5. Because no proposition for such a service has yet been given to or passed by the Traffic Commissioners, who control the issuing of bus routes, there will be no bus service to Halesworth from Wednesday 30 March. Travel to Halesworth will then have to be made through the DRT service.

6. Any further inforrmation will be provided as soon as the situation is clarified.

John outlined the Handy Bus proposal and answered questions. Several people were concerned about the proposed subscription costs, none of which used the bus.

Those people who once used the bus (such as the 15 who attended the meeting at the Royal Oak on the 8th March for example) were not there. Unfortunately almost all them were absent, so their views expressed last week were not heard. John previously rang some of them only to find that some had just gone on holiday or didn't want to come out after dark.

John has posted these notes in the village. Those wishing to comment or discuss the Handy Bus proposal can contact him.

John Treadway, Sycamore House, Laxfield 01986 798324 or johnatreadway@yahoo.co.uk

LAXFIELD BUS HOPE - report in Diss Express

The text below was published on the web Tuesday 29 March 2011 08:22. Copied here because newspapers seem to regularly delete content from the web after a few months.

PUBLIC transport in Laxfield could be retained thanks to a new democratic volunteer service looking to stave off isolation for non-car driving residents.

The Handy Bus Club (HBC), a pilot community minibus project operated by Suffolk ACRE currently serving areas between Sibton, Peasenhall and Halesworth, has been approached by residents wanting a Laxfield route.

This service, part of a pilot project which sees its funding end this Thursday, came about after the recent Time For You study funded by the Department of Health, and has been operating three times a day for the aforementioned areas on Mondays and Wednesdays since January.

Due to the effect of proposed bus funding cuts from Suffolk County Council, other villages such as Laxfield have expressed an interest in operating the HBC too, which can continue running for another 30 weeks with the current schedule: enough time, the backers hope, to find funding to keep the club going for even longer.

Nat Bocking, community development researcher with Suffolk ACRE, said: “The aim is to have a schedule set by passengers and coordinated with businesses, activities and health services to enable rurally isolated people to access them when public transport isn’t practical because of service gaps or an inability to book in advance.

“What’s also different about the Handy Bus is that we have brought back the bus conductor, which people appreciate.

To continue running the club as a charity, we ideally need up to six people to volunteer as drivers and conductors to help run the service in Laxfield.”

Club membership is open to all, and although travel is free for pensioners, disabled people, and family carers, other members are asked to make a voluntary contribution per journey.

/ENDS