Statement to the WECA Committee, 15/03/24

We welcome the conversation in the Scrutiny Committee on Monday about the governance of WECA, and were pleased to see Dan Norris attending and responding to questions. The governance of the West of England or former Avon area has been a barrier to effective public transport for a long time preceding the creation of WECA. We are now looking to WECA to provide the coherence and leadership needed to achieve effective public transport for all. This requires collaborative participation of all of the UAs. We also heard a lot of comments desiring better communication and transparency, and active collaborative relationships with the WECA mayor and officers. From our standpoint it does seem that many things are happening behind closed doors and then announced as a finished product rather than developed collaboratively and transparently. This is also a necessary part of building trust and effective collaboration. We are aware of the tendency to be parochial as Dan says, and agree with the need for transport investment to make sense for the region as a whole, rather than be divvied up between the authorities. Given the nature of travel as journeys from one place to another, delivering good transport in one area brings a benefit to people in all areas, whether from reduced congestion and better air quality due to less through traffic, or better journey availability. We welcome the explanation of the Citizens Assembly outcomes prioritising bus services. While we are glad to see specific mention of younger and older people, and prioritisation of good connectivity for rural areas, we are disappointed not to see mention of Disability and accessibility of buses. This is essential, as many Disabled people are fully reliant on buses and have fewer other transport options. Accessibility includes making it easy for people to use buses without having to be digitally literate. We also would like to see reliability as a greater priority, as lack of reliability, or certainty that a scheduled bus will even turn up, is a significant barrier to people choosing buses over cars (or even taxis). The committee acknowledged the challenge of funding availability and how difficult it would be to achieve the number 1 item on the list of at least one service per rural area to connect to a hub. Our criticism of this citizen panel has always been the implied acceptance of underfunding of bus services. Reliability will be key to increasing ridership, but this is also an issue for funding of local government and public services in general, and needs to be addressed at both local and national levels.

Emilia Melville

Reclaim our Buses campaign and WESTACT