Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Development and Safety

The Mayor outlined the procedure for dealing with the petition and invited Mrs Doreen Spiers (Friends of Springbank) and Andy Hayes (Hesters Way Partnership) as petition organisers, to formally present the petition. 

Mrs Spiers, a resident in Springbank and a regular user of the C Service, refuted the claim that the changes had benefited any residents.  Andy Hayes commended Doreen for having initiated the petition, which had garnered over 1000 signatures.  He urged the Council to support a request that Stagecoach undertake a consultation exercise on the change to the C Service; namely the removal of the service to Springbank Way in its entirety.  Whilst Stagecoach had calculated "that most customers using the affected stops on Springbank Way will need to walk a maximum of 2 minutes further to the nearest bus”, which equated to ‘only’ 500m, the majority of people that used the C Service were not physically able to walk this distance.  The change to this service had impacted some residents’ ability to access not only the local shops, but the resource centre which housed the Doctors surgery which had over 200+ registered patients and received 60,000 visits a year, as well as a Dentist surgery, Pharmacy and childcare facility and it was noted that this building was owned by Cheltenham Borough Council.  The service had changed on the 01 May 2016, without any public consultation or Equality Impact Assessment having been undertaken by Stagecoach, they had simply advised the Transport Board of the intended changes and then implemented them.  Stagecoach cited punctuality as the reason for the change, having given no consideration to residents needs, and stated that since the change punctuality had increased by 2.37% between May and August 2016, which the petitioner did not consider as much of an improvement.  He appreciated that this council was not the local transport authority but hoped that it could put pressure on Gloucestershire County Council, to have Stagecoach review their decision in light of the petition.  

Members were aware that Rupert Cox, Managing Director of Stagecoach West, was present in the public gallery and suggested that, having expressed his willingness to answer Member questions, the matter should be debated at this meeting.  The Cabinet Member Development and Safety had been minded to refer the matter to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, but was comfortable to debate the issue at Council, if that was Members’ preference.  

Councillor Stennett formally proposed that the matter be debated at  this meeting, with Councillor Clucas as his seconder. 

Councillor Colin Hay raised a point of order.  He felt that the issue would be easier to debate at Overview and Scrutiny as the usual rules of debate could be dis-applied with the Chairman of the Committee using their discretion to allow non-committee Members to speak and ask questions.  

Upon a vote it was RESOLVED that the mater be debated at this meeting. 

The Mayor was advised that it was at her discretion to extend the time allowed for the debate.  

Rupert Cox, Managing Director  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9