Update: Urgent – As the recent Frome Standard and Frome Times front page stories explain, Bath & North East Somerset Council are reviewing their support for the 267 evening bus services, to try and reduce costs. This affects the 9.10pm and 11.10pm Bath to Frome buses and the 8pm and 10pm Frome to Bath buses (Monday-Saturday) and the route also serves Oldford, Beckington, Rode (one service), Woolverton and Norton St Philip. Frome Town Council meet this Wednesday and will discuss the issue (see the agenda here and the Item 4 report here) and decide whether they can help subsidise the service or not.  Town councillor Tricia Golinski needs to hear from everyone who uses the evening buses, so she can tell other town councillors how important the service is to people, as some town councillors need persuading. So please could you email her briefly today at tgolinski@outlook.com and copy me in at aomboyden@yahoo.co.uk to let FTC know how the loss of the 267 evening bus service would affect you, your family and friends.  Please come along to the meeting on Wednesday at 7pm at the Rook Lane Chapel to have your say – we need as many people as possible to speak out.

I am working with other councillors and the Frome & Villages Bus Users Group (FAVBUG) on this. I encouraged people to respond to the B&NES consultation, responded to B&NES myself and spoke to the B&NES Transport Scrutiny Panel (see below) on Monday along with Linda (SCC cllr) and Tracey (FAVBUG). If B&NES do not agree to support the service, Somerset County Council are unlikely to start subsidising the service again, so Frome Town Council’s support is vital and could help other smaller parishes to agree to contribute a little too. But if none of our councils will support the service, the Monday to Saturday evening bus service is likely to end soon as I understand First are unlikely to continue it as a commercial service. So we need FTC to agree to help. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far.

Main article:

Bath & North East Somerset Council are reviewing their support for the 267 Bath-Frome evening bus service, to reduce the £19,000 annual subsidy. This affects the 9.10pm and 11.10pm Bath to Frome buses and the 8pm and 10pm Frome to Bath buses (Monday-Saturday).  Between 55-65% of the passengers are from Frome, about 20% are from Beckington, Rode and Norton St Philip, and 15% live in B&NES, according to B&NES surveys.

I attended the emergency FAVBUG (Frome and Villages Bus Users Group) meeting in late August. We agreed to ask residents to respond to the consultation to let B&NES know how cutting these evening buses would affect people. We hope that B&NES can be persuaded to retain the subsidy, by making the case that people from Frome spend (more than the £1.90 subsidy per passenger journey) in Bath as a result, as well as the social benefits of allowing people to work later, travel to see friends/family (including patients at the RUH), or for education, leisure or entertainment, helping people without a car get around, and reducing car use. This service was under threat in 2013 and B&NES were persuaded to retain the subsidy. Somerset County Council removed their subsidy completely in 2011.

If B&NES are not persuaded again to retain a subsidy, we hope that Somerset County Council could take it on (although as they removed the subsidy in 2011, and are reducing subsidies across the county, this is not likely) or that parish councils whose residents use the service (largely Frome Town Council but also Beckington, Rode, Norton St Philip and Hinton Charterhouse) will be persuaded to help. But if no council will support the service, evening bus travel between Frome and Bath and the villages in between is likely to end soon.

So we really do need everyone’s help to save these bus services. Please do respond to the consultation at http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/consultations/changes-supported-bus-services-may-20117 (deadline 16^th September), read the attached Stakeholder Consultation document, contact FAVBUG. Please also contact Frome Town Councillors who will be debating whether the Town Council can help at their next meeting (21st September, 7pm, Rook Lane Chapel), and come along to the meeting and have your say (the agenda will be here) otherwise they might not think it is important!

People can also write to any pubs, restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas, night clubs, etc., that you frequent in the evenings when in Bath and tell them that the loss of this bus subsidy of the 267 could hit their revenues. A suggested draft of an email/letter to Bath businesses is here (thanks to Rode parish councillor Peter Travis). The voice of Bath businesses could carry a lot of weight in the B&NES consultation process.

Please also email me at cllr.boyden@mendip.gov.uk to get in touch and get involved.

My response to B&NES consultation response:

This is my response to the B&NES Council consultation on the review of the subsidised 267 Bath-Frome evening services:

I am one of the ward councillors at Mendip District Council for Frome College ward, within which the 267 bus route passes in Frome. I have consulted residents in my ward and worked with the Frome and Villages Bus User Group (FAVBUG) and other councillors to analyse the consultation and the potential effects of the 267 evening service being cut as a result of any cut of the subsidy by B&NES. I have also encouraged residents and other councils and councillors to respond individually to the consultation, and I hope some have done so.

Firstly I would like to thank Bath & North East Somerset Council for supporting the 267 evening bus services up to now, since and before 2011 when Somerset County Council stopped supporting the cross-border service. I appreciate your budgets are also under pressure and you are looking to make savings to support other services for your own services.

Secondly I would like to make the case for you to retain the subsidy. I am sure you will have heard from residents by now that the 267 evening service is an important part of the overall 267 service as it helps connect people in Frome and Bath and the villages in between with family and friends, work, education, leisure, shopping, health and other services they need and enjoy.

The 2-day survey of passengers in February 2016 gave a snapshot of usage in the dark winter months, and should really be repeated in summer or early autumn also when it is still light in the evenings. The February 2016 surveys showed that the 267 evening service mostly enables people living in Frome, Beckington, Rode, Norton and Hinton Charterhouse to travel into Bath and back again, with about 85% of the passengers living in Somerset (65% in Frome and about 20% in the villages of Beckington, Rode and Norton St Philip) and 15% in B&NES including at Odd Down and Hinton Charterhouse.

So why should B&NES continue to subsidise the service?

One reason is that the evening service helps Somerset residents travel into Bath to spend money in Bath into the evening, and this helps the B&NES economy. It also helps people travel to and from Bath by bus as it makes daytime bus travel into Bath more attractive in the first place as they can stay late. The consultation document states that the current 267 evening subsidy costs B&NES Council £19,067 a year, with patronage of 10,084 passengers a year, so the average subsidy per passenger trip is £1.89.  Passenger data for February shows 71% using the evening service for a ‘leisure/entertainment’ trip. Many of these trips will involve spending money in Bath, particularly in the summer months, by tourists staying in the various B&Bs, guest houses and hotels in Norton St Philip, Wolverton, Rode, Beckington, Oldford and Frome who visit Bath on the 267 bus for the day. Cutting the 267 evening service would mean they would have to leave Bath earlier and reduce spending in the Bath tourism economy. B&NES Council has published estimates that the average visitor to Bath spends £34 per day in Bath – see http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/your-council-and-democracy/local-research-and-statistics/wiki/tourism-and-visitor-economy. The evening service to and from Bath the villages and Frome runs 6 days a week, i.e. about 300 days a year. If the evening service enables just two ‘average visitors’ a day to come to Bath, the service would generate £20,000 in spending for Bath per year.

Another reason is environmental, in that the 267 evening service brings people into Bath without adding to car travel and the associated congestion, air pollution in Air Quality Management Areas, carbon emissions or parking problems in residential streets. I know B&NES is investing heavily in the planning and design of potential new or expanded Park and Ride sites and places, to reduce car travel into the city centre, including the potential expansion of Odd Down Park & Ride, which would probably cost many times more than the £1.89 subsidy per trip for the 267 evening service. Cutting the 267 evening service would discourage daytime bus travel as well as in the evening, meaning some additional pressure on Park & Ride and parking spaces, which would go against B&NES Council policies and increase costs in another Council budget. Retaining the subsidised service would therefore help tackle traffic congestion, climate change, poor air quality and the increasing need for additional parking spaces in and around Bath.

A third reason is the social benefit of the service and the potential impact of losing it. The February survey showed that some 18% use the 267 evening service for work, 6% for shopping, and 3% for education purposes on those days, and 71% for various leisure/entertainment, but it would be interesting to see the split in summer.  Government and other research shows that people who rely on the bus are more likely to not have a car, more likely to be women, and older (over 60) and younger (17-20) people, and to be on lower incomes. Cutting the evening service will affect these people who rely on the bus to make any number of journeys to go shopping, see friends and family, visit patients in the RUH, go to work and access education, as well as for leisure and entertainment in Bath.  Most councillors tend to have cars, as we have to, to attend meetings, but I can still remember relying on the bus to get to work several years ago and it gives you a different perspective when you depend on public transport.  Retaining the subsidised service would therefore help protect more vulnerable groups of people.

Ending the 267 evening service would increase the ‘rural isolation’ of villages around Bath – as the residents of Midford, Hinton Charterhouse, Norton St Philip, Rode, Woolverton, Beckington and Oldford would have no public transport to or from Bath at all in the evenings. Frome does have a railway connection and has 3 trains from Bath after 8pm, but the train is more expensive than the bus, and is unlikely to be a viable option for residents of north Frome, Norton St Philip, Wolverton, Rode, Beckington and Oldford currently served by the 267 as they would need to get a taxi home. I fully support the statements submitted in response to the consultation by Frome Town Council, Beckington Parish Council and Rode Parish Council, who wrote in support of B&NES continue its subsidy.

Bath is the main city in the area and the villages are being required to expand further with new housing development, partly because they are served by bus routes – atleast that was the assumption when the Mendip Local Plan Part 1 (Core Strategy) was adopted in December 2014. It should be noted that the housing numbers within it are treated as a minimum, and that additional housing will be required in the north of the district (comprising Frome and the villages along the 267 route!) in Part 2 of the Mendip Local Plan which is now being drafted for initial consultation shortly. No doubt much of this new housing which will follow is required to help B&NES meet housing need, atleast indirectly by allowing workers from Bath to live in Frome and the villages and commute in. National and local planning policies are requiring more residential development in this area, but cuts to council bus subsidies are cutting the very public transport services that the new residents will rely on in order to travel more sustainably and access services. It does not make much sense. A way really needs to be found to capture the value of development to help support the bus services that they depend on, between B&NES, Mendip and Somerset councils. Retaining the subsidised service would help combat rural isolation, and help all the villages along the route develop sustainably with continued access to services provided by both Bath and Frome.

Thirdly, I understand the above arguments and impacts may be compelling but they do not help your budgets directly. If you are still considering reducing or ending the subsidy, I urge you to start talks with Somerset County Council, Mendip District Council, Frome Town Council and the parish councils for Norton St. Philip, Rode and Beckington, to see if they can help save the service. I know Somerset County Council ended its subsidies of the 267 evening service in 2011, but they are being asked to reconsider this now. Mendip District Council does not support buses as Somerset are supposed to, but can perhaps help lobby and promote the service or support in other ways. If Somerset CC will not help, I have promoted the idea that the parishes might be able to make a contribution that makes the difference to save the service for their residents. As most of the passengers are from Frome, a number of councillors have asked Frome Town Council to consider the idea at their next meeting on Weds 21^st September (see agenda and item 4 report here http://www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/meeting/council-2/). Rode, Beckington and Norton St Philip Parish Councils may also be able to help in a smaller way, with some sort of match funding agreement. Councils do need to work together here.

So although I think there are clear economic, social and environmental reasons why B&NES could justify continuing to support the 267 evening buses alone, if you need help, I hope B&NES can work with other councils if and where necessary to help retain this important service which is vital for so many of all our residents.

Yours sincerely, Adam Boyden, Mendip District Councillor, Frome College ward

My statement to B&NES Council’s Communities, Transport and Environment Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel on 19 September 2016 (statements were also given by Linda Oliver (SCC cllr) and Tracey Harding (FAVBUG)):

My name is Adam Boyden and I am a Mendip District Councillor for College ward in Frome, which is served by the 267 bus route. I am concerned that losing the 267 evening bus service would affect people in Frome and the villages to the north, and have worked with the Frome and Villages Bus User Group and other councillors to encourage residents and councillors to respond to the consultation.

Firstly I would like to thank your Council for supporting a service that connects people largely living in Somerset with places they need to get to, largely in Bath, particularly since Somerset County Council stopped supporting it in 2011.

Secondly I would like to make the case for you to retain the subsidy. Your budgets are under pressure, so why should B&NES continue to subsidise the service?

Well, one reason is that the evening service helps the B&NES economy, by bringing Somerset residents into Bath to spend money into the evening, and it makes bus travel in the day more attractive overall in the first place, as they can stay late and return on the same ticket. The subsidy costs B&NES £19,000 a year and £1.89 per passenger trip. Bath Tourism estimates that the average day visitor to Bath spends £34 per day. There are many residents, and tourists staying in B&Bs and hotels along the route, who visit Bath by bus for the day. The 267 evening service has 10,084 passenger trips a year, and 71% of passengers (on that evening in February) got the bus for ‘leisure or entertainment’ trips – these passengers could therefore be generating over £243,000 for the Bath economy. So cutting the service could have an economic impact on Bath.

Another reason is environmental, in that the 267 evening service brings people into Bath (and earlier in the day) without adding to car travel and congestion, air pollution in Air Quality Management Areas, carbon emissions, or parking problems in residential streets. Your council is considering investing heavily in further Park and Ride capacity to reduce traffic in the city centre, including at Odd Down on the 267 route. Cutting the 267 could therefore increase traffic and the council’s costs of mitigating its effects, in other budgets.

A third reason is the social impact of cutting the evening service, which would mostly affect the people who rely on the bus, who do not have a car, and are more likely to be women, older people over 60 and younger people under 20, and those on lower incomes. Lower paid workers in pubs and restaurants who rely on the 267 to get home would be cut off.  Retaining the service would therefore help protect the more vulnerable groups of people. Ending the service would also increase the ‘rural isolation’ of villages around Bath who would have no public transport to or from Bath at all in the evenings. Frome does have a railway station but the train is more expensive, and is unlikely to be a viable option for villagers. Frome and the main three villages are expanding further with new housing development, because they are close to Bath and are served by bus routes. So I fully support the responses to the consultation from Frome Town Council, Beckington and Rode Parish Councils, who ask B&NES to continue the service.

Overall, cutting the 267 evening buses may have an economic impact on Bath’s economy, it would go against the council’s own strategy of reducing car travel, could affect traffic and air quality, and increase the need and costs related to Park & Ride sites. It would have a social impact on people who rely on the bus, and increase the ‘rural isolation’ in local villages. These impacts costs and benefits need to be assessed further.

Thirdly, although these are clear reasons for B&NES to support the service alone, I hope your council will talk to Somerset, Mendip and the parish councils to help retain this important service, through ‘match funding’ if necessary. Frome Town Council are considering this very issue on Wednesday, and I and others will report back.

Thank you, Adam Boyden, Mendip District Councillor, Frome College ward

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