North Yorkshire County Council

 

Scarborough & Whitby Area Constituency Committee

 

15 March 2023

 

Receipt of Petition - Save the 840 Bus to Whitby from Leeds

 

1.0

Purpose of the Report

 

1.1

To advise of a petition containing more than 500 signatures.

1.2

To ask the Area Constituency Committee to consider a response.

 

 

2.0       The Petition

 

2.1       A petition has been received by the County Council.  This is a paper-based petition with 621 signatures, all of which are of people who live, work or study in the county.

 

2.2       The wording of the petition is ‘Save the 840 Bus to Whitby from Leeds’ and there was no covering letter providing any further context.

 

3.0       The County Council’s Arrangements for Receiving and Responding to Petitions

 

3.1       The key features of the County Council’s arrangements for receiving and debating petitions, as published on the County Council’s website, are as follows:

 

·      Receipt of the petition is published on the County Council’s website (which has been done in the case of this petition).

 

·      If a petition contains 500 or more signatures (but less than 30,130 signatories), it will be scheduled for debate at the next meeting of the appropriate Area Constituency Committee.

 

·      The petition organiser is offered the opportunity to speak for five minutes at the Area Constituency Committee meeting to present his/her petition.  Subsequently, at the meeting, the petition will be discussed by County Councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes and a decision will be made on how to respond to the petition. 

 

·      Possible responses by the County Council to petitions, as shown on the website, are:

(a)    to take the action requested by the petition.

(b)    not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate.

(c)    to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant committee; or

(d)    where the issue is one on which the county council executive is required to make the final decision, the county council will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision.

 

·      The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision.  This confirmation will also be published on the website.

 

3.2       In accordance with the arrangements described above, the petition organisers have been invited to join today’s meeting to present their petition.

 

 

 

4.0       Feedback from the Public and Community Transport Manager regarding the Bus Service

 

4.1       Transdev advised the Council in December that, due to rising costs and fewer passengers travelling since the pandemic, Service 840 between Malton & Whitby would be withdrawn from April 2023. This is an unprecedented situation affecting the whole country with many bus routes nationally seeing a reduction in service or being at risk of withdrawal. Since then officers at North Yorkshire County Council have been working with the bus company to look at solutions to keep the service running.

 

4.2       However, following the recently announced extension of government support to the bus sector, including the £2 bus fare cap scheme which will now run until the end of June, and following an increase in passenger numbers during February, Transdev have now confirmed that the 840 service will not be withdrawn in early April. The current service will continue throughout the summer with only some minor changes to running times to assist with reliability.

 

4.3       A further review will take place at the end of the summer and, as with all bus routes, Service 840’s longer term future will depend on how it performs and how many passengers make use of the service. We hope that passenger numbers will continue to grow and the Council will be working with Transdev and other bus operators over coming months to promote bus services and encourage more people to choose the bus as this is the best way to ensure that routes remain in place for the long term.

 

 

5.0

 

Recommendation

 

5.1

That the Committee notes the petition and considers a response.

 

 

 

Barry Khan

Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

County Hall

Northallerton

 

Authors of report:

Melanie Carr, Principal Democratic Services and Scrutiny Officer, North Yorkshire County Council

Andrew Clarke, Public and Community Transport Manager, North Yorkshire County Council.

 

 

Background Document:  North Yorkshire County Council’s petitions information and advice, a copy of which is on the County Council’s website at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/petitions-information-and-advice