Community bus scheme launched
By Stephen LLoyd
April 30, 2013

VILLAGERS have celebrated the arrival of their own community transport service, the first scheme of its kind in Hampshire.

Hartley Wintney Parish Council officially launched its community bus scheme with a drinks reception on April 22.

The parish council won the contract to operate the new service, kick-started by money from Barratt Homes as part of a deal for its St Mary’s Park development in Dilly Lane.

Starting on May 1, it will provide Monday to Friday peak-time commuter trips to Winchfield Railway Station, twice weekly services to the Meadows Shopping Centre in Camberley and to Basingstoke Hospital, a weekly trip to Basingstoke College of Technology, a Saturday service to the Meadows and a minibus group hire service for local voluntary and community groups.

The project was awarded a five-year contract worth £246,000 by Hampshire County Council earlier this year, the culmination of more than two years’ hard work and negotiations by the parish council.

In October 2010, the parish council took the unusual step of asking Hampshire to give it the developer contributions allocated for public transport in the area.

Leah Coney, executive clerk at Hartley Wintney Parish Council, said: “In providing a locally owned and operated service, we can be demand-responsive. This is a sustainable model because it is created from and directed by local need. The service provision is adaptable in ways just not possible on commercial bus routes.”

Mrs Coney explained the scheme would offer a hybrid of services available to all residents of the parish and surrounding villages, including regular shopper trips and journeys to the hospital as well as off peak door-to-door services which she says are vital in a rural community where geographical isolation can be a problem due to a lack of regular public transport.

Fares will be charged in order to supplement the funding in the short term and then to sustain the service in the longer term.

Parish council chairman Dorothy Harvey said it had embraced the localism agenda, focusing on the provision of key services to identify if they can be delivered more effectively at a local level.

“The loss of the main bus service through the village in October 2011 demonstrated the fragility of services reliant upon huge subsidies which cannot be maintained in the current economic climate,” she said.

“This contract means that we can bridge the gap and provide a local, cost effective means of travel for residents.”

The parish council said there has been huge support and interest from the community, with many people already registering to use the range of bus services that will be available.

Community bus administrator Mandy Smith has joined the parish council to manage the scheme on a day-to-day basis, backed by a team of three part-time drivers and two volunteer back-up drivers.

   Leave a comment