This evening (Monday) a Ventnor Town Council (VTC) Working Group will be meeting to discuss the future of the No.31 community bus service, a pioneering on-demand bus service, which its users tell News OnTheWight, is a lifeline. VTC are considering stopping the service due to concerns about the cost of subsidising the service.
Since enquiring about the council’s decision to cease the service, News OnTheWight was told by the Mayor that an Extraordinary VTC meeting had been called for Friday 22nd October. This morning (19th Oct 2021), VTC’s Clerk got in touch to say a meeting hasn’t been arranged, but they hope to hold one soon.
Background
The roots of this started a decade ago when the former Isle of Wight Conservative Council scrapped WightBus community bus service back in 2011 and replaced it with a scheme of volunteer drivers. At the time former councillor and cabinet member, Edward Giles, hailed the project as “Big Society in action”.
Jim Morgan, a former Ventnor Town councillor, spearheaded the return of the No.31 bus route in August 2011, and with a grant from the Isle of Wight council and the work of dedicated driver, Ken Day, through B&B Taxis and Island Mini Bus Service, a service connecting residents in Bonchurch and St Lawrence to Ventnor returned.
The route was taken over a couple of years later by Minibus Plus, and from then on, subsidised by the Ventnor Town Council.
A trailblazing rural community bus service
To reduce costs the original five day a week service was reduced to two days in August 2020, with three loops from Bonchurch to Ventnor, on to St Lawrence, back to Ventnor and on to Bonchurch again.
There is a timetable, but passengers can also call the driver on his mobile to arrange a pick up along the route – trailblazing the proposed Bus Back Better scheme that will be introduced by the Government next year, which calls for smaller, on-demand buses, for rural services.
Views from the passengers
News OnTheWight took a ride on the bus last week, to speak to the users of the service.
We share below some of their comments
“Only means of contact with the outside world”
One gentleman in his 90s, who lives on his own and was picked up in St Lawrence, told News OnTheWight and that using the bus twice a week was his only contact with the outside world.
When asked what the bus service meant to him he replied,
“It’s everything.
“I can’t walk very far, I’ve got no means of transport and without this bus I am stuck at home. It’s so bad that without this bus I can’t even get to a dentist or anything like that. So it really is essential to me to have this bus.
“When the bus stopped running a while back I had to fork out for other means of transport that I could ill-afford. Without this bus I could end up in a nursing home, and it’s daft.”
“It’s going to be a great loss to us”
A couple in their 80s from Bonchurch, who travel on the bus on Tuesdays and Fridays have been using the service for over a year. They told us,
“It’s going to be a great loss to us because my wife has trouble walking. She broke her kneecap in the town and also has a new hip, so where we live in Bonchurch it’s a long walk to get up to the No.3 bus stop.
“If the No.31 isn’t around we’ll have to struggle to walk to Leeson Road or get taxis, which we can’t really afford.
“If people have to use their cars they’ll go further afield, which would be a shame. We also use the cafe in Ventnor and have a coffee. If it’s gone, it’s going to be a great loss to us.”
Fighting social isolation
Many of the passengers explained that being able to use the bus was not only vital for their shopping needs, but also their mental health. They said that the social aspect of seeing and talking to other people helped fight their sense of social isolation.
One passenger said being shut off in St Lawrence was “like living in the dark ages”, and with fears of the village shop also closing, if the bus service was scrapped they feared being left with no way of getting any food at all.
Another passenger from St Lawrence explained that if they finish their shopping in Ventnor early, they sometimes get back on the bus and have a ride through Bonchurch, which gives them a change of scenery and some variety to life.
Impact on businesses
One passenger from St Lawrence explained that he spends about £3,500-£4,000 a year in the Coop. He said,
“They’ll lose that, I won’t come to Ventnor.”
Another from St Lawrence told News OnTheWight,
“If they stop this little bus Ventnor will lose out because we won’t go in anymore. I’m not paying for car parking, we used to park in Park Avenue and walk in, but my partner had a heart attack so we can’t do that anymore.
“So we shall go to Shanklin where we can park for free.
“We feel we ought to use the bus, doing our bit for the environment.”
A passenger from Bonchurch told us,
“I can drive, but if the bus was removed I would drive to a more convenient supermarket where you can park outside, which would mean I don’t go to the cafes in Ventnor, and don’t do anything else in Ventnor.
“I’m more concerned for all of these people who don’t have any other way of getting out, because that’s most of the rest of them who use this bus.”
One passenger from Ventnor made the suggestion that perhaps the VTC could ask Coop, Tesco and Boots for £1,000 a year contribution each to the bus service, given that they are directly benefiting from the passengers.
Expensive alternatives
So what are the alternatives for those who don’t have a car or other means of transport? As one passenger said,
“What about all the people who can’t drive for one reason or another. We’ve got no other option in St Lawrence.”
Another told News OnTheWight that the No.31 was her “means to be able to get out”.
She has to travel to Ventnor to look after her sister who has dementia.
“We definitely need a bus service here.”
The passenger also told us that a return taxi , St Lawrence to Ventnor, costs her £20 and recently taking a taxi from St Lawrence to Niton jabs and back for her jabs cost her £40.
It’s worth pointing out that the passengers we spoke to did not appear wealthy, but many told us they were on tight, fixed budgets.
“Unfair to be counting numbers”
With the service not yet fully back up to pre-Covid numbers, one passenger from Bonchurch said,
“I think it’s a very unfair time to be counting numbers when we’ve just had a pandemic.
“Why don’t the VTC fund the service for another year and then see what happens with the Government’s promise of money for rural bus services? If it goes now, it’s not going to come back next year. Why can’t they compromise and fund it for one more year?
“We all pay up for the extra precept pretty happily and many don’t see the benefit of it, but the one thing we have got is this service.”
Mayor: It’s “all about balancing costs and passenger numbers”
News OnTheWight spoke to the VTC Mayor, Cllr Stephen Cockett, at length on Friday. He detailed the history of the bus service and the subsidy VTC have been giving to the service, which is met by the precept that residents of Ventnor pay.
In summary, he told us it was “all about balancing costs and passenger numbers”.
He said,
“We’ve tried in the last couple of years to boost the user numbers, with little discernible success.”
A strong advocate over the last three years for retaining the service, Cllr Cockett leafletted every house in St Lawrence to raise awareness of the service, encouraging more people to use it. He also helped Cllr Brian Lucas, and resident Stuart George, to leaflet every house in Bonchurch. The result of which, “made little difference to the user numbers whatsoever,” said Cllr Cockett.
The numbers
In the 2021/22 budget the service is predicted to cost the VTC around £6,000. In previous years the cost to the VTC has been around the £10,000-£12,000 mark for a five-day a week service, after concessionary fares were rebated.
Although the number of users has dropped in the last 18 months due to Covid, the driver told News OnTheWight he’s seen numbers rising again in the last three months and believes the service is back to around 75 per cent of the pre-Covid numbers.
In September, the average number of passenger journeys per day was 28.75 – some of these will be return journeys, but not all.
In the months before, there were 20 and 21.44 average number of passenger journeys per day for July and August respectively – this was as the country started to loosen up after the Covid Lockdowns and prior to the announcement of the service potentially ending at the end of October 2021.
Cllr Cockett added,
“I’m very sympathetic to those users but it’s a large subsidy just for the occasional bus trip and we know there is an issue of social isolation and we know that there’s a rationale for the bus which is the social and economic rationale and environmental rationale and that’s why we have stuck with it for so many years.”
Cllr Cockett says that even if the council were to reverse the decision to cease funding the service, Minibus Plus – which is operated by Top Mops – will have already submitted the cancellation paperwork to the traffic commissioners office. He believes the service is due to cease at the end of October, early November.
Minibus Plus
News OnTheWight have been in touch with Top Mops to ascertain whether the paperwork has already been submitted to the DfT.
Top Mops founder, Mark Tutty, told News OnTheWight that the notice to quit the route had been filed with DfT, but due to Covid delays it had not yet been acknowledged. He said that if VTC were to reverse their decision, the route could continue as normal.
Article edit
3.35pm 18th Oct 2021 – Extra info from Mark Tutty added
8.56am 19th Oct 2021 – Update about Extraordinary meeting
7.38am 20th Oct 2021 – Ken Daily corrected to Ken Day
12.13pm 20th Oct 2021 – Added reference to B&B Taxis and Island Mini Bus Service running the previous service
