Yesterday 30/4/13 members of Halesworth Area Community Transport met with Graham Pendlebury the Director of Local Transport at the Department of Transport and among other things, they impressed on him the urgent issue of D1 licensing of volunteer drivers.
Mr Pendlebury is a member of DfT’s central Strategy Committee, and chairs several programme boards and inter-departmental committees on behalf of other government departments. He is also a member of the Audit & Risk Committees of the Government Car and Despatch Agency and the Driving Standards Agency.
He was Director of Road and Vehicle Safety & Standards from 2004 to 2007, with responsibility for road casualty reduction, traffic management policy and certain transport technology issues.
Previous posts in the DfT and its predecessors at senior civil service level involved responsibility for tackling the environmental impacts of air transport (2001-2004) and management of long term strategic thinking and cross-cutting work (1999-2001). He has also held posts in the international aviation and rail sections of the Department, and was Principal Private Secretary to the Minister for Roads and Traffic in 1989-91.
Mr Pendlebury kindly wrote and acknowledged he had taken the issues presented away with him.
The story was reported on the same day of the less heralded news that the Lowestoft Minibus for the Blind have appealed for more volunteer drivers who must be licensed before 1997.
EADT story: http://tinyurl.com/cupn4mb
Background why D1 issue is important: http://tinyurl.com/bnfsspd
Apologies to the EADT but the report is posted here because sometimes stories drop off their website.
Suffolk: Community transport boss visits Suffolk
By Emma BrennanWednesday, May 1, 2013
CHALLENGES facing community transport providers in rural areas and towns across Suffolk were put to the Government’s director for local transport when he visited the county yesterday.
Graham Pendlebury, from the Department for Transport, met representatives from some of the county’s 19 community operators that all come under the umbrella of Suffolk Community Transport (SCT).
SCT is the first organisation of its kind in England. It was set up with a grant of more than £300,000 from the Department for Transport to champion community transport issues and implement an initial three-year strategy to enhance local voluntary transport services.
If successful, SCT’s strategy will be used as a ‘best practice’ model which could be rolled out nationwide.
Yesterday, Mr Pendlebury took trips on some of Suffolk’s rural links and dial-a-ride services before watching a presentation at SCT’s headquarters in Hadleigh outlining the concerns and the successes of the group.He told the EADT the visit had enabled him to witness how community transport operated at the “coal face.”
He said: “I have been seeing different aspects of the group’s operations today and it has been very interesting to see how it all works at ground roots level. These organisations are run on very tight budgets with a heavy reliance on volunteer operators, which enables them to provide viable services in some very thinly populated areas. As a result, they are able to provide a much more flexible and responsive service in places where people would otherwise become quite isolated. People who use the service have told me today how vital it is to them.”
Pat Moody, who uses the Felixstowe Area Community Transport Scheme (FACTS), told Mr Pendlebury: “The FACTS bus is extremely important to me. I use it to get to my craft club, to go shopping and to visit my daughter. It provides an absolute lifeline because without it, I would be housebound.”
SCT chair, Sue Jay said the group had several concerns which it had put to Mr Pendlebury during his visit. This included a plea to change legislation which places restrictions on people who passed their driving test after 1997, preventing them from driving disabled access minibuses over a certain size without a special licence.
She said: “We want the Government to look at this because the restriction is discouraging younger drivers from signing up as volunteers.” Mr Pendlebury said he would report concerns back to the Government, adding: “I have been very impressed with what I have seen here today. Having an umbrella group to enable resources to be shared is a valid model for all sorts of places, not just rural areas.”
On Saturday 21st January 2012 residents of Halesworth over 18 can cast their vote on the sale of the Dairy Hill playing fields by the Halesworth Playing Fields Association to enable a new ‘campus’ centre at Halesworth Middle School after it closes in July 2012. You must attend the Middle School, Harrisons Lane IP19 8PY between 11 am and 8 pm to cast a binding vote adjudicated by Suffolk ACRE.
Everyone in the surrounding area is also invited to the consultation to learn about these proposals and can have their say on what facilities should go there and meet community organisations.
There will be a free shuttle bus (the Halesworth Hoppa 511) calling at the Middle Car Park, Saxons Way, Durban Close, Holton and Harrisons Lane between 11 am – 7.40 pm.
For information about the campus project, see the library display or visit www.halesworthcampus.org
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.
