Where should council transport money be spent?

View from the roof of Fairfax House, with thanks to the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust. Looking across to the Bucks County Council (BCC) tower

Council bosses currently invest £24m providing and supporting a range of transport services.

These include home to school transport, services for adult social care, concessionary fares and non-commercial bus services that often run in the evenings, weekends or in rural areas.

Whilst significant savings have been made in recent years, further savings of £2.3m need to be found to meet the Council’s agreed budget strategy going forward.

Cabinet Member for Transportation, Mark Shaw said the all-encompassing review will look at both external services and the way in which services are managed and provided internally by the council.

“We will be looking at everything we do in this area, how we do it, how much it costs and whether we can do it differently.

“Unfortunately a do-nothing approach is not an option. What we have to do is deliver more efficient transport arrangements, that best meets the needs of communities whilst doing it for less cost.

“We don’t know all the answers, so it’s vital we work with communities so they can tell us what’s needed locally and how we can design new approaches together. We are therefore planning to work through our local area forums to launch four suggested pilot areas - Buckingham, Waddesdon and Chesham and their surrounding rural areas and High Wycombe - so we can look in detail at what goes on locally and hopefully find solutions that can also be applied across the county.”

The Council has also just launched its budget consultation which asks local residents, communities and businesses where they think the Council should best direct its limited resources. The survey is online at www.buckscc.gov.uk/budget until the closing date of Thursday, December 17.