Community Bus Service Consultation
About the consultation on the community bus service
The following important information is about the community bus services we run.
This consultation runs from 27 July to 6 September.
What is happening?
As your borough council, we provide door-to-door community bus services for people aged 60 years or over, and for people of any age who find it hard to use public transport.
Without further investment, plus a large annual subsidy or a big increase in charges, we cannot continue to run them in the way we do now. We are asking for your views on how the services can continue in a way that offers better value for money for the council and/or the people using the service.
What services are affected?
There are two community bus services we are consulting on:
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For people who attend the Jimmy Macs Activity Centre at The Hive in Hatfield
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The Shopper Hopper service for people to get to local supermarkets
We have also offered an ad hoc private hire service to some organisations. We are speaking directly to the small number of organisations who have used this service.
Why are you doing this?
We subsidise these services. In the last full year that they were running (before Covid) they cost the council £184,000. On top of this, the 12 buses we own will soon need replacing. To replace them would cost £80,000 for each new diesel bus, or £120,000 for each electric bus.
This would be a large investment for us. That is why we would like to consider other options that provide better value for money.
We are not required to provide community transport. The county council (HCC) already do this. Any savings we make would be used to reinvest in other council services, including improving council tenant homes and providing support to community and voluntary organisations.
Who is taking part in this consultation?
As well as the people who use the services, we are inviting everyone who lives in Welwyn Hatfield to take part. As a resident your views are important because it is about how we spend our budget.
Your feedback will help inform our final decisions.