X9 Bus Service

Wed 24 Feb 2016, 00:36

The decision was made to withdraw all bus subsidies - it was part of the amended budget agreed by all political parties.

There is £9 million of transition funding from central government to help ease the pain of the budget cuts. Councillors have allocated £2 million to Early Intervention Hubs and Children's Centres as the proposed saving of £6 million was reduced to £4 million, and another £3 million has been allocated to Adult Day Centres. This leaves the lremaining £4 million currently unallocated. The funding is likely to be used for short-term temporary arrangements this year whilst communities and volunteers look at permanent arrangements to continue some services from next year.

The Council still has to make further savings of £15 million over the next three years so there's more pain to come..

Fri 19 Feb 2016, 17:52

Hi everyone, I went on the OCC website to read their report on the budget decision-making and found at least one contradiction. I used their form to comment and wrote the following: I note that the report on the budget cuts mentions a £4 million subvention
from central government whereas other reports put the "transition fund" at
£9 million. please clarify this and publish a detailed account how this will
be used to "ease the pain" of the cuts to bus subsidies. Your report of the
16 February meeting says nothing about the decision on said subsidies. Please
comment.
They say they will reply within 10 working days.

Fri 19 Feb 2016, 13:41 (last edited on Fri 19 Feb 2016, 14:16)

Because of the way the councils work, parking fees collected by WODC could not be used for bus subsidy as that is the County's responsibility. Yes, I know, it's all counter-intuitive and far too complicated - The Lib Dem group on the County Council proposed at the recent budget meeting that we should move to one authority for Oxfordshire as a way of simplifying things and reducing costs but I know WODC are not in favour of doing this

Fri 19 Feb 2016, 09:28

James - couldn't agree more. I said something similar under the 'Have YOUR say on parking in West Oxfordshire' thread a couple of weeks ago.

Fri 19 Feb 2016, 09:13 (last edited on Fri 19 Feb 2016, 09:17)

WODC should start charging small amounts for parking in places like Witney, e.g. £1 for a few hours, to fund the X9 service. Discuss.

(Anyone who can afford to run a car can afford £1 to park. We mustn't lose the most popular bus route in West Oxfordshire. For people who don't drive, it's a lifeline.)

Thu 18 Feb 2016, 17:55

According to the Oxford Mail, there is the possibility of a £9 million "transition" fund which would help "to ease the pain" of cuts to bus subsidies and homelessness services. A cross party committee is looking at how that can be used. So it may be a while before we know the full extent of the changes.

Thu 18 Feb 2016, 13:20

Richard, do you have any wisdom as to when changes to the X9 service are taking place?

Thu 4 Feb 2016, 13:49

Ok Richard, I'll take it off FB then.

Thu 4 Feb 2016, 13:07

Good to see the case for the X9 made on national television, and radio (the Today programme) too - some lovely shots of the local area on that report!

But although OCC are withdrawing their subsidy, Pulhams are planning to continue operating the X9 at a reduced frequency. The BBC's claim that it will be "gone by the summer" is extrapolating the Campaign for Better Transport's press release about rural buses in general. But they've drawn the wrong conclusion in this case - the X9 currently looks likely to keep going into the summer and beyond.

Please don't be put off by this report and do keep using the bus.

Thu 4 Feb 2016, 12:08

Thank you Graham, I have just shared this report on FB for those who may be interested.

Thu 4 Feb 2016, 11:44

The BBC UK News website today reports that our X9 Bus service is likely to be "gone by the summer". See www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35491551