Stratford District Council digs into savings to maintain on-demand transport service

“Workload related delays” at Warwickshire County Council have led to Stratford District Council delving into savings to maintain a transport service.

The district this week approved £60,000 worth of funding to keep the UBUS service – on-demand transport for residents with health or mobility issues and those who lack access to scheduled bus services – operating beyond the end of March 2024.

UBUS has been running since 2014 and can be booked between 10am and 7pm on weekdays except for an hour-and-a-half window where the transport is used for children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities).

However, a district report recently highlighted that the county council, the authority responsible for transport services, has a preference “to take on overall responsibility and delivery of any future service”.

Its plan is to “align this with their other demand responsive transport services”, which “would lead to some services across the district being reviewed and changes made”.

Despite the looming contract expiry, the district council says it has “been advised that due to capacity challenges at Warwickshire County Council (WCC), it is highly unlikely that they will be in a position to design, specify, tender, appoint and mobilise a new provider of the UBUS replacement service by April 1, 2024”.

That would have left the service at risk of temporarily ceasing but amid concern from officers and councillors, an in-principle deal has been struck for the district council to use £60,000 from its reserves to plug the gap until the end of August.

It is made up of £12,000 to the bookings provider Vectare and between £45,000 and £48,000 to the county council to provide the transport. The overall cost for the five months is up some 15 per cent on what was budgeted for in 2023-24.

The district’s report reads: “Initial exploratory discussions have taken place with both booking centre and WCC in respect of the vehicle providers, and they both appear willing.

“However, current inflationary pressures are also likely to increase costs beyond current rates.”

It is anticipated the new deal will be sorted out before the end of August 2024 due to the need to transport SEND students from the start of the new school year in September.

Changes being considered by the county include reducing the number of buses from five to three, introducing a scheduled and routed service into Stratford town and cutting back where there is less demand, potentially combining the current UBUS Southam zone with the IndieGO Rugby zone, reducing the availability of services in the Southam zone from five days to three and ending the late afternoon and early evening slots across the board.

The district is considering options to add bolt-on services to cater for local needs with the costs involved the subject of negotiation with the county council.