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What is your local transport authority name? Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Which geographical region are you in? West Midlands
What type of authority are you? Unitary authority
How would you classify yourself geographically (NTS area type definitions)? Urban Large (population over 250,000)
Name of the reporting officer: Brian Edwards
Contact phone number of the reporting officer: 01782 233761
Email address of the reporting officer: brian.edwards@stoke.gov.uk
What have you used the developed funds for?- A: Maintain current tendered services - yes
- B: Increase level of tendered services - no
- C: Invest in alternative services (such as community transport, taxi buses) - no
- D: Invest in supporting bus infrastructure provision - no
- E: Other - yes, the majority of funding has been used to maintain and extend an existing service - service 50. This services communities which have been identified as not having close access to the local bus network. Fares income is retained by the operator to maximise the value of the grant fund. There are three other local bus services where the authority provides a benefit-in-kind in terms of vehicles, which then allow the service to operate on a zero-cost basis to the authority. The small amount of grant fund not used to directly support service 50 is claimed towards the cost of these vehicles to the authority.
If you ticked C, D or E in the previous question, specify the type of services/infrastructure you have invested in:
- A: Community transport run under a section 19 permit - no
- B: Taxi buses - no
- C: Network re-design/configuration - no
- D: Bus stops/shelters - no
- E: Bus lanes - no
- F: Bus priority signalling - no
- G: RTI (Real Time Information) - no
- H: Funding kick-start services - no
- Other: The cost of providing three Optare Solo buses to operators to enable them to provide three additional socially necessary local bus service contracts in addition to the service which the BSOG grant funds directly.
Have you observed any direct or indirect impacts as a result of the way in which you have used the devolved funds?
- A: Cost reductions to the local authority - no
- B: Successful kick-starts - no
- C: Increase in patronage due to investment in infrastructure - no
- D: The commercial market replacing any lost tendered routes - no
- E: There have been no observed impacts - no
- F: Other: Continued bus service accessibility for a wider number of communities by working closely with the operator to identify how the grant fund can be stretched to advantage the greatest number of residents.
Provide a short description of whether you took any mitigating action to reduce the impact of the transfer of BSOG on operators? Our BSOG payment is small and we have ensured that all funding transferred to our authorty has been reinvested each year in directly supporting bus services which cannot be provided commercially. We offer such contracts via an open competitive tendering process and all contracts have been awarded to local operators based in the city.
Specify how much your local transport authority spent on tendered bus services in 2017/18? £19,200
Specify how much your local transport authority spent on tendered bus services in 2018/19? £19,200
Did you spend all of your allocated BSOG 2018/19 grant? Yes