Agenda and minutes

To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

Additional documents:

Webcast for 76.

Minutes:

Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

Name	Minute No.	Description of Interest	Reason	Action Taken
Cllr N Cavill	All Items	West Monkton	Personal	Spoke and Voted
Cllr J Hunt	All Items	SCC & Bishop’s Hull	Personal	Spoke and Voted
Cllr L Lisgo	All Items	Taunton Charter Trustee	Personal	Spoke and Voted
Cllr D Mansell	All Items	Wiveliscombe	Personal	Spoke and Voted
Cllr H Prior-Sankey	All Items	SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee	Personal	Spoke and Voted
Cllr G Wren	All Items	Clerk to Milverton PC	Personal	Spoke and Voted

77.

Public Participation

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The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

Temporary measures during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Due to the Government guidance on measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), we will holding meetings in a virtual manner which will be live webcast on our website. Members of the public will still be able to register to speak and ask questions, which will then be read out by the Governance and Democracy Case Manager during Public Question Time and will either be answered by the Chair of the Committee, or the relevant Portfolio Holder, or be followed up with a written response.

Additional documents:

Webcast for 77.

Minutes:

The following members of the public had requested to speak on item 5 on the agenda.

1) Mr David Redgewell - South West Transport Network and Railfuture Severnside.

“Dear Councillors,

Our main concern is the provision of high quality waiting facilities in Taunton town centre. The bus station provided a regional function for the south west both for short services to the town but more importantly for bus services to Minehead, Wellington, Tiverton, Bridgewater Burnham on Sea, Street, Glastonbury, Wells, Axminster and Chard. National Express Coaches operate services to Plymouth, Paignton and Cornwall. Services also operate to Bristol, Heathrow Airport, London Victoria coach station, Barnstaple and North Devon, Scotland, Manchester and North.

With the closure of the coach station there are no waiting shelters for coach passengers. The closed bus and coach station had a waiting room, cafe bar, travel centre facilities and toilets across the road in Castle Way as well as facilities for Coaches to use the wheelchair lifts. At present National Express Coaches stop in Tower Street without any passengers facilities being available.

Town centre waiting facilities

Following the closure of the bus station buses operate from stands in the town centre with very poor quality shelters in Castle Way, The Parade, and East Reach. At present services 21, 22, 28 operate from Castle Way along with Hatch Green. Dartline service 20 to Seaton, Devon and South West Coaches service causing passenger congestion on the bus stops and poor access for disabled people.

From the Parade which has very poor shelters, service 25 to Dulverton and other services around the town centre again have very congested stops with no proper waiting facilities.

Also departing the Parade outside the card shop, service 29 to Wells 30 to Axminster for Weymouth via Chard and Service 99 to Chard the same problem exists.

With the Bus station closed and social distancing regulations in place for Covid-19, there is a need to mark out social distancing at bus stops meaning that the existing shelters will not shelter passengers from the rain and will be totally inadequate for their needs.

The buses under these regulations for Covid-19 will mean a double decker carrying 20 passengers and a single decker 10 passengers. This means that buses will not be able to be doubled up at bus stops in the town centre causing congestion unless plans are made to remove the private car from the central area similar to Exeter high street.

Question 1. As part owner of the bus station Somerset West and Taunton council could look at use of part of the old bus station to allow safe social distancing to and from country buses with marked out emergency bays.

The use of Taunton Railway station as an interchange is to be welcomed but unlike Penzance and St Austell where there are proper bus station bays and passengers facilities and staff accommodation, in Taunton the interchange does enough bays for buses other than to West Somerset and no staff accommodation. One ... view the full minutes text for item 77.

78.

Taunton Bus Station and Bus Transport in Somerset West and Taunton

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First Group South West – Mr Alex Carter, Managing Director - attendance confirmed

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Webcast for 78.

Minutes:

Alex Carter, Managing Director of First Bus presented an update in relation to Taunton Bus Station and Bus Transport in Somerset West and Taunton.

The changes and developments in service provision in Taunton and the South West was set out along with the situation around the Taunton bus station closure. Following the impact of Covid-19 on passenger numbers and update was given around the existing service provision and current capacity of services.

Debate

· Concerns were expressed over the closure of the Bus Station. Further information was requested on the details around the closure and the cost of maintenance.

· It had been determined that there would be a significant sum required for the Bus Station and its cost of repair to continue to maintain the station. It was acknowledged that the consultation of closing the station was minimal due to timescales. Both parties wanted to go through with the transaction.

· To provide the maximum level of quality service it had been determined that spending on essential costs would enable improvement and development and future services.

· Avoiding using public transport in the current context had been difficult in addressing long term service improvements. Future investment on routes and improving the fleets would be on the cards alongside extending services into the evening.

· Increased passenger numbers were usually determined on existing successful services.

· Securing funding from Somerset County Council was required to improve services in many instances.

· Central Government were covering the costs of the provision of the bus service to ensure the service broke even. The current level of service was 60% of the normal service across the district, the government guidance was 40%.

· Discussions were taking place on longer term funding of the service. The current Covid-19 funding was for a period of 12 weeks.

· Bus operators would be able to restore services when reactivation on a normal basis when required from the government. Investing in additional fleet was not possible until the service was back to normal and generating a profit post any Covid-19 restrictions.

· It was recognised that some routes were running at a reduced service due to a lack of support funding. The future of services would be considered once out of the Covid-19 restrictions.

· Concerns were expressed over a spiral of decline of some services, it was recognised that this was a demand led service. Changing of habits and lifestyles post Covid-19. First Group were the only provider of a commercial service in the area.

· A realistic view of the climate still remained even with the emphasis of the Climate Emergency agenda. There was nothing to support the investment in the short term due to the lack of profit generation and growth in the service.

· It was determined that funding for Cornwall Council bus services was at a higher level than in Somerset historically due to securing additional funding and European funding.

· It had been acknowledged that the improvements in the economy of diesel busses had a greater contribution to carbon neutrality ambitions.

· It was determined at ... view the full minutes text for item 78.

79.

Annual Scrutiny Report. Report of the Scrutiny Chairman PDF 267 KB

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Additional documents:

Webcast for 79.

Minutes:

The Chairman of The Scrutiny Committee presented the Annual Scrutiny Report.

The year started with the publication of new Government Guidance seeking to clarify and broaden the role and influence of Scrutiny Committees. The Chairman and The Vice Chair were keen to ensure that Scrutiny Councillors gained a greater oversight of their work programme than was done previously. This was to give us a stronger voice over the Executive reports the committee wished to look at in detail and enable maximum influence to be exerted. The committee also aimed to be more proactive and investigate external matters which had a bearing on residents.

In the last year, the Committee discussed many issues of community interest and concern such as The Local Plan, Firepool, Watchet Library, Climate Change Strategy, Shared Legal Services, 5G, Financial Monitoring Reports and Budget Setting Reports, Performance Reports, Somerset Climate Emergency Framework and SWT Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Plan, Voluntary and Community East Quay Wall and others.

However, while I believe we were able to add value to many of these topics, it was also clear that that being adequately sighted on emerging issues was not always straightforward. There were issues around the process for differentiating between topics for Briefing and items going to Scrutiny. As a result we have made some adjustments to the process of flagging topics and reports for Scrutiny. We have also refreshed the agenda setting process and the involvement of Committee members in that.

In order to reflect on our first year and help us focus our role and efforts we had planned a Committee ‘Away Day’ with an external Facilitator on 20^th March 2020. This unfortunately fell foul of the current restrictions. However it is intended to re-schedule this as soon as possible as it will a key opportunity for the Committee to review, and build in a bigger and better suite of work to take up in the future such as Spotlight Reviews and Task and Finish Investigations.

Resolved that:- The Scrutiny Committee thanked the Chairman for his report were in agreement that the report be considered at Full Council without any amendments.

80.

Scrutiny Committee Action Plan