Overview
Executive summary
- Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) engaged with the public on our local bus network in the summer of 2021.
- We included the information in Lincolnshire’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). This sets out our aspirations for developing bus services in Lincolnshire.
- LCC were not successful in securing BSIP funding from the Department for Transport. This was in line with most other Local Transport Authorities.
- We have continued to develop the Lincolnshire Enhanced Scheme and Plan for bus services.
- LCC and the bus operators are now focussing on activity we can action within existing resources. Annex B in the scheme sets out what we’d like to do first if funding became available.
- The first question in the consultation asked:
- how far the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan reflect the current situation in Lincolnshire, and
- how far the Scheme and Plan identify the optimal solutions for improving bus services in the county.
- The second question asked:
- if stakeholders agree with the priorities in Annex B of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme. These would be acted on if Lincolnshire acquired future funding.
- We also invited people to submit any further comments
Key findings
- Six responses were received from statutory consultees
- 51 responses were submitted to the online survey
From the online survey:
Do the Scheme and Plan reflect the current situation? Do they identify the optimal solutions for improving bus services in Lincolnshire?
- 26 people (51.0%) agreed or strongly agreed
- 11 people (21.6%) disagreed or strongly disagreed
Do you agree or disagree with the priorities identified in Annex B of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme?
- 27 people (54.0%) agreed or strongly agreed
- 14 people (28.0%) disagreed or strongly disagreed
A summary of the further comments submitted is provided in the findings section of this report.
Introduction
In March 2021, the Government published a new National Bus Strategy. This set out the vision to improve bus services in England. The Government has allocated £3 billion towards improving bus services throughout England as part of this strategy. To secure some of the £3 billion made available, Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) are required to issue a notice of intent. They are also required to produce a BSIP. In addition, they should have an Enhanced Partnership or start the process of franchising (where this is being pursued).
To prepare the Lincolnshire BSIP, Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) has engaged widely with multiple internal and external stakeholders. We did this to incorporate their views on making bus services better.
As part of the process, LCC carried out a wide scale community engagement exercise in the summer of 2021. This enabled us to collect a wealth of feedback about enhancing and improving services in Lincolnshire. An engagement survey was carried out for four weeks during August 2021. We asked for views on bus services in Lincolnshire. A total of 1,705 responses were received.
After the BSIP was published, LCC worked with others to co-develop an Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan. We worked with local operators, district councils, and the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP). The Scheme and Plan will be the mechanism used to deliver the BSIP initiatives.
The Lincolnshire Enhanced Partnership will set out how we will deliver the outcomes of our BSIP. This follows engagement with the public, operators, and other key stakeholders. The Lincolnshire Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan documents explain the proposed improvements the Partnership is aiming to make. It also explains the actions needed to achieve them.
LCC gave approval to continue the development of Lincolnshire’s Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan. This was later agreed by the interim Lincolnshire Enhanced Partnership Board in November 2022.
Local bus services operators in Lincolnshire have been consulted. They raised no objections. This allows us to progress to the consultation stage.
Statutory consultation took place in January 2023 (minimum four weeks). This was carried out with statutory stakeholders identified in the Lincolnshire Enhanced Scheme and Plan. We were also keen to hear from individual stakeholders who have an interest in making bus services work better.
Stakeholders
Direct emails were sent to the following statutory consultees to invite them to make representations by email or post:
- All operators of local bus services that would be affected by any of the proposals:
- Bland’s (Rutland) Ltd
- Brylaine Travel Ltd
- Delaine Buses Ltd
- Dent Coaches
- Dickinson, D & J
- Fowler & Sons, W H
- Grayscoft Bus Services Ltd
- Phil Haines Coaches Ltd
- Hunt (Coach Hire) Ltd
- Stagecoach East/East Midlands
- P C Coaches of Lincoln Ltd
- Sleafordian Coaches
- T C Mini Coaches Ltd
- Travel Wright Ltd
- Gem Mini Travel
- Centrebus Ltd
- Coach of Langtoft
- Marshalls of Sutton on Trent Ltd
- Transport Connect Ltd
- Vectare Ltd
- A C Williams Coaches
- Organisations that represent local passengers: none
- Other local authorities that would be affected by the proposals:
- North East Lincolnshire Council
- North Lincolnshire Council
- Nottinghamshire County Council
- Rutland County Council
- Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Combined Authority
- North Northamptonshire Council
- Leicestershire County Council
- Norfolk County Council
- District councils:
- Boston Borough Council
- East Lindsey District Council
- South Holland District Council
- City of Lincoln Council
- North Kesteven District Council
- South Kesteven District Council
- West Lindsey District Council
- The Traffic Commissioner (East)
- Lincolnshire Chief Constable and Police Commissioner
- Transport Focus
- The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
- Lincolnshire MPs:
- Sleaford and North Hykeham - Dr Caroline Johnson
- Gainsborough - Sir Edward Leigh
- Grantham and Stamford - Gareth Davies
- South Holland and the Deepings - Sir John Hayes
- Lincoln - Karl McCartney
- Boston and Skegness - Matt Warman
- Louth and Horncastle - Victoria Atkins
- Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership
- Email sent to registered users of the LCC’s Let’s talk Lincolnshire engagement platform who have chosen to hear about engagement opportunities for transport, roads and transport
- Email to all Lincolnshire County Council councillors advising of the consultation
Methodology
- A direct email was sent by the project lead to the statutory consultees. This invited them to make respond by email or post.
- An email was sent by LCC Engagement Team to all Lincolnshire County Council councillors. This was to tell them about the consultation.
- A newsletter was sent to 982 Let’s talk Lincolnshire participants. This group has signed up for information on transport, roads and road safety. They were invited to take part in an online survey.
Questions asked in the survey
The following questions were asked of statutory consultees:
We want to know your responses to the following two questions:
- To what extent does your organisation agree or disagree that the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan reflects the current situation and identifies the optimal solutions for improving bus services in Lincolnshire?
- If Lincolnshire was successful in acquiring any future funding, to what extent does your organisation agree or disagree with the priorities identified in Annex B of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme?
The following questions were asked in the survey on Let’s talk Lincolnshire:
- We would like to hear from organisations and individual stakeholders who have an interest in making bus services work better.
- Please share your views on the initial Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan documents.
Survey questions:
- In which capacity are you responding?
- Member of the public
- Representing an organisation
Please name which organisation you are representing
- Other, please specify
- To what extent do you or does your organisation agree or disagree that the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan reflects the current situation and identifies the optimal solutions for improving bus services in Lincolnshire?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Don't know
- If Lincolnshire was successful in acquiring any future funding, to what extent do you or does your organisation agree or disagree with the priorities identified in Annex B of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Don't know
- If you have any other comments, please provide these in the box below.
- Free text
Findings
Statutory consultee responses
We received six responses from the following statutory consultees:
- North East Lincolnshire Council
- South Kesteven District Council
- South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership (comprising Boston Borough Council, East Lindsey District Council and South Holland District Council)
- Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership
- Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police
- Transport Focus
Summary of the points raised by statutory consultees in relation to the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan
- Responses to the Scheme and Plan were mostly positive and complimentary.
- LCC not getting additional funding will moderate ambitions.
- Proposed bus infrastructure, bus priority and junction priority measures are supported.
- LCC should ask for the views of passenger groups to ensure the Scheme and Plan are meeting the needs of users.
- Some large housing developments are not identified within the list of new developments in the plan.
- The focus on travelling safely was welcomed, including the ambition to have Wi-Fi and CCTV on all buses.
- Having more bus lanes would help to reduce congestion and increase road safety.
- Services cannot be relied upon to access time-critical services, such as trains.
- Realtime information would be a significant help for bus users.
- Consideration will need to be given to bus services which cross local authority boundaries.
- More needs to be done to help strengthen CallConnect availability. This includes in the early mornings, late evenings and on Sundays.
- Increasing the frequency and operating hours of CallConnect, Inter Connect and Into Town services was welcomed.
- Bus operators can do more to encourage off bus payments to improve efficiency and shorten journey times.
- The focus on the market town improve programme and bus driver training was welcomed.
- Request for a service from Bourne to Grantham and Lincoln.
- There is a wish to explore with LCC how Plusbus could be expanded across other towns, including Boston and Spalding.
- Stamford should be part of the Plusbus scheme and also be part of the Market Towns Improvement Programme.
- Not enough evening and weekend services to be useful in and around Grantham.
- The proposed Market Town Improvement Plan is supported.
- It was welcomed that Grantham is one of the market towns identified for the Market Towns Improvement Programme.
- LCC should embrace innovation and explore potential improvements and ideas to help achieve Net Zero targets by 2040 in Lincolnshire.
Summary of the questions raised by statutory consultees in relation to the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan
- How will LCC report on progress towards meeting targets?
- How does LCC plan to publicise the passenger charter?
- Could more be done to support pilot schemes for purchasing new buses linked to NET Zero targets and emerging fuel types?
- Could we look more closely at making the case for housing developers contributing to new bus provision where new housing is planned?
- Could we explore supporting operators to invest in new vehicles to drive down costs and fares?
- What rationale was used to select the three towns for the Market Towns Improvement Programme?
Non-statutory consultee responses
We received 51 responses to the online consultation survey on Let’s talk Lincolnshire.
Who took part:
- 44 people (86.3%) were a member of the public
- 5 people (9.8%) were representing an organisation
- 2 people (3.9%) chose 'other'
The five ‘representing an organisation’ responses were from:
- A village residents’ association
- Two parish councils
- A councils partnership (this response has been included in the statutory consultees section of this report)
The two ‘other’ responses were from councillors.
We asked, "to what extent do you or your organisation agree or disagree that the Enhanced Partnership Scheme and Plan reflects the current situation and identifies the optimal solutions for improving bus services in Lincolnshire?"
- 26 people (51.0%) agreed or strongly agreed
- 11 (21.6%) disagreed or strongly disagreed
We asked, "if Lincolnshire was successful in acquiring any future funding, to what extent do you or does your organisation agree or disagree with the priorities identified in Annex B of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme?"
- 27 people (54%) agreed or strongly agreed
- 14 people (28%) disagreed or strongly disagreed
We asked people if they had any other comments. The next section, General comments, summarises the comments received.
General comments
People mentioned the need for:
- Long term, imaginative and creative solutions to bus services based on current circumstances, not on pre pandemic circumstances.
- Long term funding commitments.
- Clean, more affordable, frequent, regular and reliable services to attract more users.
- People to use buses rather than cars with better services between big towns.
- Economical and environmentally friendly buses.
- Areas with the greatest housing growth to be prioritised for bus services.
- Areas with fewest or no bus services to be prioritised ahead of well-connected areas.
- Greater publicity of bus services and changes to bus services.
- Timetables to be better thought out, publicised and changed less often.
- Improved bus stops and shelters, with displays of current timing information for arrivals and departures.
- Increased security cameras for public and bus staff safety.
- Passenger numbers to be prioritised over shorter journey times.
- Joined up services between different bus operators and across neighbouring council areas.
- Services joined up with other public transport, such as rail services.
- More scheduled services rather than Call Connect services.
- National Express service to be reinstated and more coach operators to pick up in villages.
- Using cash on buses.
- Future engagement to focus on bus users and involve greater partnership between parish and county councils.
Specific comments about why services are needed
People mentioned the need for:
- More services allowing people to commute to work, with services starting earlier and ending later in the day.
- Services giving easier access to public services such as medical appointments at centralised medical centres.
- More services connecting people with schools, colleges and learning opportunities.
- Services which make it easier to travel for shopping.
- Services for better access to leisure and sporting opportunities. More services in the evenings, late night and at weekends, including Sundays. These services are especially important for younger people.
Several people raised points about rural isolation and villages
People mentioned the need for:
- More services to and from smaller towns, villages and isolated rural locations, including CallConnect services.
- Services to run earlier and later from villages to towns and back to enable travel to and from work.
- Extending hours of services from villages to towns to make travel worthwhile (some services allow only a limited time in the destination before the return bus service).
- Services to enable an ageing population to access shopping in non-village locations (especially where village shops have closed down).
- Smaller more economic buses to serve small towns and villages.
Next steps
The results of this consultation will be shared with Lincolnshire County Council Transport team. It will also be shared with Lincolnshire County Council councillors and the Council’s Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee. The consultation engagement report will be published and made available for the public on Let’s talk Lincolnshire. The report was shared and published in April 2023.