South Glos respond to bus petition

South Glos Council has given Claire Young the following response to the petition she submitted calling for the council and bus operators to work together to reinstate the bus links to Southmead, Bristol Parkway and UWE:

I am writing in response to the Petition that you presented to the SGC public Transport Forum on the 10th October 2016 in respect of the changes to the local bus network that were implemented in September 2016.

The petition raised the concerns of the petitioners in relation to cuts to bus services from Yate and the Chipping Sodbury area to Parkway Station, Southmead Hospital and UWE, in particular the loss of direct services and the reduction in frequency of those services that remained. The Petition called upon South Gloucestershire Council to work with local bus operators to reinstate these bus services.

I am able to confirm that South Gloucestershire Council will continue to work with the commercial sector to try and deliver as comprehensive as possible network of bus services to the whole of the South Gloucestershire area. Where public funds are used to provide financial support to services (either entirely or in part) the Council will always seek to obtain the maximum benefit possible within the available funding; it may be that in some cases the most effective use of the funding available is to develop the network by making use of the available interchange points rather than by direct routing.

Where services receive financial support from the Council, we will work with the commercial operator to encourage the development and growth of the service with the aim of making it more sustainable for the longer term.

It is not possible for the Council to automatically replace commercial services that have been withdrawn. Where services are withdrawn we will work with operators and other key stakeholders to identity and investigate possible alternatives, albeit this will need to within the available funding.