Author: Jim

Lancashire County Council has announced its intention to change the terms and conditions under which Disabled Persons’ Concessionary Bus Passes (NoW Cards) can be used.

At present, holders of cards issued on grounds of disability can be used before 09.30 on Monday to Friday on payment of a flat fare of £1. This concession is not available to holders of NoW cards issued on grounds of age. The council intends of remove the additional concession so that all pass holders would have to pay the full adult fare if travelling before 09.30.

The £1 fare was increased from 50p in 2018 and at the time the council said that the biggest use of the concession was by people travelling to medical appointments, followed by leisure, education, shopping and then work. A consultation exercise at the time claimed that only 4% of respondents said the increase would make their journey unaffordable. However, the consultation also showed that for some users the ability to pay with a single coin was important. This was maintained in 2018 but will not necessarily be so this time, depending on what happens to the £2 cap on adult bus fares in the budget. This is what we said in 2018: https://lancsbus.blogspot.com/2018/11/fare-increase-for-disabled-passholders.html

You can read the council’s statement here: https://news.lancashire.gov.uk/news/have-your-say-on-proposed-changes-to-nowcard-trans-scheme

New Consultation

The council is running a consultation on the move, which will be open until 18th November. It takes the form on an online question-and-answer form that asks about the effect the change would have on individuals. The Bus Users’ Group will be responding to the consultation via other means, but if you or anyone you know is likely to be affected here is the direct link to the consultation questionnaire. https://online1.snapsurveys.com/interview/5d962249-3fe0-48f7-8d31-e640eb813d67

If you need the questionnaire in a different format please telephone 0300 123 6734 or visit www.lancashire.gov.uk/haveyoursay  

What do we think?

The Bus Users’ Group understands the financial position that all councils are in after ten years of austerity during which their funding from central government has been severely cut. However, it seems odd that at a time when a county council initiative has seen a £1 fare offered to all passengers in the evenings and on Sundays throughout the county, a very similar offer should be withdrawn from one disadvantaged sector of society.

We also wonder how much the council will save as a result of this move. Any passholders travelling for leisure or shopping will be able to rearrange their journeys so as to travel after 09.30 and the same will apply to those who are able to arrange medical appointments to later in the day, as senior passholders already do. The council will still have to reimburse bus companies for these journeys but will lose the £1 contribution that passholders currently make.

The shelter at Sainsbury’s before the seat was provided.

Some things in the bus passengers’ world can be expected to take a long time to bring to fruition: establishing the case for a new bus route, or convincing the powers-that-be to change the timetable or relocate a bus stop; but other things that ought to be easy just aren’t!

Take the simple matter of installing seating in a bus shelter. The Bus Users’ Group has been involved in two such requests in recent times. One, for a seat that would be made and donated by a local craftsman to be installed in a parish council-owned bus shelter in a village near Lancaster, was turned down out-of-hand by the Parish Council in what appeared to us to be a case of parish-pump politics that we felt unable to get involved in.

In the second case, at the “Sainsbury’s” bus stop in Lancaster, we were successful – but it seems to have taken much longer than we think it should. The stop is equipped with a shelter, provided by advertising contractors Clear Channel, and is well used by passengers travelling north and west from the city. Despite there being no obvious reason for the omission, unlike most Clear Channel shelters, it had never been provided with a seat. There is a public bench on the pavement nearby, but anyone using this would be unable to see the oncoming buses and might not get to the stop in time to stop them if there were no other passengers waiting.

Timeline

It seemed therefore a perfectly reasonable request for a seat to be provided, and we were ultimately successful. Here’s the timeline of how we went about it.

21st March – Our member, Mary, a regular user of the stop, raised the matter at a Group meeting at which members agreed to pursue it with the city council.

7th April – Following production and approval of the minutes of the meeting a request was made to the council for a seat. Initially, things moved very quickly.

8th April – The council agreed to approach Clear Channel and said it had already identified a suitable seat that was due to be removed from a shelter in Morecambe when that was replaced with one of the council’s new “Living Roof” shelters.

9th April – The council reported that Clear Channel had agreed to the request – but no timescale was offered.

Bus passengers are generally very patient people – some might say that we have to be – so nothing happened until

5th June – Mary reminded the BUG executive that the matter was still outstanding. A reminder was sent to the city council the same day, asking if there was now a date for installation. This prompted the response that the shelter in Morecambe had not yet been replaced and that there was still no date for that to happen.

10th July – It was noticed that the Morecambe shelter had been removed, so a further reminder was sent to the council. This brought the response that although the old shelter had been taken down, its replacement hadn’t been installed due to bad weather. It wasn’t explained why this should cause a delay in relocating the seat! There was now a new date for erecting the replacement shelter in Morecambe of 19th July, but this did not necessarily include moving the seat either.

22nd July – Word came from the council that the seat was to be installed on 31st July

31st July – The seat was not installed

13th August – Following an enquiry from the ever-patient Mary, another reminder went to the council. This brought forth apologies and an explanation that the installation date was put back to 5th August without the council being informed, but then nothing happened! There was no new date for installation.

30th August – It came to our attention – by observation – that the seat was now in place and being used by grateful passengers just six months after our request was accepted.

The situation was complicated due to the involvement of not just the council, but also the advertising contractor and the timeline above shows that communication between them could have been better. From the passengers’ point of view it goes to show that successful campaigning requires both patience and persistence. Luckily, we have plenty of both.