Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Community Transport Association UK

1. Introduction

1.1 This evidence is submitted by the Community Transport Association (CTA) which is a national charity giving voice and providing leadership, learning and enterprise support to a wide range of organisations delivering innovative and flexible transport solutions to achieve social change in their communities.

1.2 Community transport and expanded rapidly in recent years for a variety of reasons, particularly in rural areas. Services include minibus (demand responsive/dial-a-ride), voluntary car schemes, minibus hire, scheduled bus services, wheels to work and patient/visitor transport.

1.3 CTA welcomes the inclusion of transport as one of the Ministers’ rural priorities and for this to be an important part of the work by DEFRA’s Rural Communities Policy Unit.

1.4 The CTA is pleased that the Government is preparing a Rural Policy Statement and hopes that transport and the importance role played by the voluntary sector in delivering rural transport solutions will be recognised in this statement.

2. The Role of Community Transport

2.1 The importance of the voluntary sector in providing vital transport services in rural areas has grown significantly in recent years. This has come about for a number of reasons including:

Cutbacks in mainstream public transport due to budget reductions by local transport authorities or increasing financial pressures faced by the operators themselves, have increased the need for alternative provision.

An increasing recognition by local authorities and others of the role that can be played by the voluntary sector in meeting rural transport needs.

The injection of money by the Department for Transport over the past two years, amounting to £20 million, to assist 76 English rural local authorities introduce sustainable community transport solutions in their areas.

An increasingly elderly population in rural areas needing access to a range of vital services that have been diminishing in rural areas and become concentrated in fewer locations.

The CTA would like to see the increasingly important role played by the community transport sector recognised as an integral element in the Government’s rural policy.

3. Rural Transport

3.1 CTA welcomes inclusion of transport as a key policy area occupying the work of the RCPU. We urge that this should be considered in the broader context of access to services for rural people. Many important services are not available to rural residents and community transport is often the only affordable means by which these can be reached. This includes vital medical services (including doctors’ surgeries, hospital visits), banks, post offices, convenience shopping and day centres.

3.2 Although community transport is significantly used by older and disabled people, the reduction in regular mainstream public transport has increased the need for other people in rural areas without access to their own private transport. There are a significant proportion of households in rural areas who do not own a car for whom alternative transport provision is a vital necessity.

3.3 A major transport issue for rural areas are the needs of younger people. They face considerable difficulties accessing further education, training, apprenticeships and employment opportunities as well as leisure facilities. We suggest that the RCPU gives particular attention to the transport needs of younger people in rural areas.

3.4 Wheels to Work schemes are an established means by which people in rural areas can gain access to work and training. However many such schemes in recent years have struggled to survive, usually through lack of funding. The more progressive schemes have become social enterprises showing that it is possible to operate with less dependence on public funding. Nevertheless, there is a need for more collaborative working across the various government departments (DEFRA, DfT, DWP) who have a stake of the success of Wheels to Work. We would like to see this need taken forward by the RCPU as well as given recognition in the forthcoming Rural Statement.

3.5 A major transport concern for rural communities is access to health. As mentioned above, this forms a significant part of the role of community transport: non-emergency treatment and visits to friends and relatives in hospital. The health service has gradually been retrenching its commitment to non-emergency transport which has placed added pressure on the voluntary sector to fill this need. Although there have been many productive initiatives to promote collaborative working between the health authorities and other agencies, including local authorities and transport operators, there remains much scope to improve this joint working. This is another area that the RCPU could usefully look at bearing in mind the proposed disbandment of PCTs.

3.6 Provision of registered local bus routes delivered by community bus services has become an increasingly important part of the business of community transport, assisted by changes in legislation. CTA considers there is further scope for developing this area and we would be pleased to continue a dialogue with both DEFRA and DfT regarding further policy initiatives and legislative changes.

4. The Work of the RCPU

4.1 The CTA has developed a close working relationship with DEFRA and we hope this will continue as part of the RCPU’s work programme, particularly given that transport will form an important element of their work. Recent joint working has included the latest State of the Sector report on community transport which is being launched in mid-September (the 2012 edition of this report focuses specifically on rural transport). This research demonstrates the growing importance of the sector for rural communities and showed that:

4.1.1There are at least 2,000 community transport organisations operating across England: nearly one-third of them are based in rural areas.

4.1.2The sector provides 15 million plus passenger journeys each year, of which eight million are undertaken in rural areas.

4.1.3At least 42,000 voluntary groups use community transport every year.

4.1.4There are more than 60,000 people who volunteer with community transport organisations, of which 48,000 are in rural areas.

4.1.5At least 10,600 people work in paid employment the community transport sector, of which over 2,000 are in rural areas.

4.1.6The most common services provided by community transport organisations are group transport, community car schemes and door-to-door transport, but community transport organisations also provide a wide range of other services including community bus services, wheels to work schemes and driver training.

4.2 It is important that the role of RCPU includes close engagement with local communities and service providers. The CTA would be happy to assist the Unit in involving the voluntary community transport sector and to ensure their views and issues are fully taken account of in any policy initiatives. This will be particularly important if the independent Rural Advocate role is discontinued.

5. Government Policy

5.1 We welcome the forthcoming Rural Policy Statement and hope there will be an opportunity for input from interested parties once this has been revealed in taking forward the proposed policy direction.

5.2 Given that transport is one of the critical areas identified by DEFRA for future work, we hope that transport will receive prominent attention in the Statement, including the importance the community transport is and could play in helping rural communities find solutions to its access issues.

September 2012