Issue - meetings

To consider and endorse, or make recommendations to the Cabinet Member for Planning, Highways, Transport and Waste on the proposed decision to update the Cabinet Decision of June 2015 to:

1.         reduce the subsidy to the standard YPTP pass by £60;

2.         introduce an option to pay by instalments, the costs of which to be funded by the charging of a modest £10 administration fee;

3.         maintain the cost of the pass to students from low income families at £100;

4.         maintain the provision of free passes to those in care and care leavers; and

5.         maintain the current offer that those families purchasing more than two standard cost passes will only pay for the first two.

Phil Lightowler (Head of Public Transport) was in attendance for this item

1.    Mr Lightowler introduced the report that set out the proposed changes to the discretionary Young Persons Travel Pass (YPTP) scheme for the year 2019-2020 which sought to reduce the subsidy to the standard YPTP by £60; introduce an option to pay by instalments, the cost of which would be funded by the charging of a modest £10 administration fee; maintain the cost of the pass to students from low income families at £100; maintain provision of free passes to those in care and care leavers; and maintain the current offer that those families purchasing more than two standard cost passes would continue to only pay for the first two.

2.  The officer responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following:

(a)  In response to comments regarding the £20 inflationary uplift element and the calculation used to justify the additional cost, Mr Lightowler said that the inflationary element included was based on anticipated increases for the whole scheme.  On being challenged re the rate of increase, Mr.Lightowler did inform the committee that  bus fares had been ahead of inflation rates for the past four years and varied between a 4.5% to 7% inflation rate across the country. The national bus survey highlighted a range of aspects including overall customer satisfaction which Kent operators scored highly against, however, a key area of concern was the ratings captured against value for money. Mr Lightowler acknowledged Members points and agreed to provide an explanation around the calculation of costs in future reports.

(b)  With regard to value for money for parents, Mr Lightowler said that there was not a standard journey that could be used to benchmark the benefit of the pass against commercial bus fares. However, Mr Lightowler stated that a good benchmark would be to judge the cost of the YPTP against what KCC pay on average per annum for scholar season tickets.  He pointed out that the YPTP would rise to £350 and the average for scholar tickets was £725, therefore the YPTP still presented good value to parents.).

(c)  Mr Lightowler said that the word ‘modest’ was used to define the £10 administration fee for the payment by instalment plan as it mirrored what a number of organisations across the UK had introduced in order to support the administrative processes required.  Mr Lightowler said that the option to pay by instalments was only applicable to those purchasing the annual £350 Young Persons Travel Pass and said that the scheme had been designed to ensure cost neutrality to Kent County Council. He assured the Committee that the YPTP scheme would continue to be reviewed to assess the impact of the subsidy reduction and to determine whether further alterations to the cost needed to be made to ensure best value for money.

(d)   Members queried whether the increased charges would dissuade students from using public transport and as a result, increase the number of cars on Kent’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 163