Category Archives: Buses

The bus service in Woodbridge

Council spending, Covid19, Demand Responsive Transport, Gritting, LibDem Green & Independent Group, Pedestrians and Walkers, Roads, Suffolk County Council, Your councillor

Woodbridge: Whats happening, February 2021

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COVID-19 in Suffolk.

In Woodbridge itself there were 4 new infections in the week to 16 February. At 48.6 infections per 100,000  we are now below the national average, having been above last month.

For up-to-date data go to https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ where you can search by postcode.

Head shot of person in blues sheepskin hat with earflaps. Her face is covered with a blue mask with white stars on it. Her eyes look apprehensive
Waiting for my jab. I had the Pfizer vaccination on Tuesday 16th

After a slow start  vaccinations in Suffolk are going very well. By Sunday 7th more than 1 in 4 residents had received at least one jab. This is a testament to the hard work and efficiency of our wonderful local healthcare teams and volunteers.

Last month I asked Public Health whether carers could not be vaccinated at the same time as the person they care for, and got what I felt to be a rather non-committal answer. Wonderfully this was not the end of the matter and, anecdotally at least, vaccination of carers along with those they care for is now beginning to happen which is very good news for community health in general.

Although the bad weather briefly closed the Woodbridge centre it was  up and running again. The latest news is that Woodbridge is opening a lateral flow testing site sjhortly.

Suffolk County Council Budget  The Suffolk County Council Budget was presented to Full Council last Thursday,  February 11th. Key points included:

  • This year’s budget strategy focuses on responding to COVID-19, delivering transformation savings, making use of the risk reserve for this year only to deal with one-off pressures, and looking ahead while continuing to adapt.
  • The net expenditure budget is £597.877m.
  • Basic council tax will be raised by 1.99%, the maximum amount allowable without a referendum.
  • The Social Care Precept will be raised by 2%, rather than the full 3% allowed.
  • £16.702m from risk reserves will be used to balance the budget.

CHart of Council Tax Band increases 21-22 SuffolkThe full detail can be found in the Cabinet papers from January 26th 2021. Link:

https://committeeminutes.suffolk.gov.uk/DocSetPage.aspx?MeetingTitle=(26-01-2021),%20The%20Cabinet

LDGI Group Budget Amendment My group constructed a Budget Amendment which was submitted alongside the administration’s Budget. Costingd and workings out were done after seeking advice from the SCC financial officers the The key change proposed by the LDGI Groupwould be to authorise the use of the full 3% social care precept, unlocking the maximum available funding without impacting SCC’s reserves. This would generate an extra £3.452m for social care at a cost of only £13.41 per year to a Band D household, freeing up general council tax funds to be spent on other projects and investments including:

  • £700k for establishing a COVID-19 grant scheme for Suffolk charities and arts & culture venues.
  • £500k for a solar energy scheme for Suffolk businesses.
  • £200k for creating an electric bike rental scheme for Ipswich and Lowestoft.
  • £500k to re-enable the use of concessionary bus passes on community transport and demand responsive transport across Suffolk.
  • £1m for a 30mph scheme to convert residential 30mph zones to a default speed limit of 20mph over four years.
  • £15k for a citizen’s assembly on how Suffolk can build back better while recovering from the pandemic.
  • £75k to enable community reviews of highways signage in the local area.
  • £50k to expand the flood management team to ensure SCC is applying for all flooding grants it is eligible for.
  • A demand-scoping exercise on where demand is for bus routes, a priority list for where future routes need to be, and a feasibility study on establishing an SCC-owned bus company to serve rural areas if commercial bus companies cannot.

The Conservative administration their budget through by a healthy margin, Labour abstaining on both the amendment and the budget vote.

WOman with earphones looking serious in front of shelves and shelves of books
Speaking on Zoom at the Budget meeting

By opting not to take the full 3% social care precept, the administration is voluntarily giving up £3.452m of funding for adult social care that must be made up from the general council tax fund, meaning that worthwhile projects such as those above cannot be pursued. I spoke specifically on the subject of bus pass usage and the inability of those entitled to them to use them on community and demand responsive transport due to a specific £300,000 cut in 2019. (The details for this are on my blog).

For full details you can watch the entire debate online on the County Council’s Youtube channel.

Dark figure of a woman holdong a red snow scraper with which she has scraped the pathe through the snow in the forground. Behind her is all white: a fairyland tunnel of snow covered branches with a little blue wheelbarrow in the distance
Clearing a path in the snow

Woodbridge Gritting: Although I started and funded the Woodbridge pavement gritting scheme 11 years ago and continued adding bins in subsequent years, the last few years have given us such mild winters that  people have dropped their guard a little.

In this last cold spell there were magnificent efforts from councillors of all parties plus a number of volunteers to make key pedestrian routes less lethal but I suggest that we need to feed in immediately all the areas people noticed as having a significant problem, a lack or bins or volunteers or all three. We also need to alert people as to the purpose of these bins. I was told off by one woman for taking sand from a bin because it was for ‘our hill’.

A12 scheme proposal: Seven Hills to Woods Lane Consultation The county is consulting on whether to spend £60million on various improvements to the We A12 between the A14 at Seven Hills and the A1152 at Woods Lane which will include dualling the section between the Seckford and Dobbies roundabouts and adding traffic lights at most roundabouts. This is a scheme which will have a great deal of local impact and on which there are likely to be many views so I would be grateful if to ensure as many residents as possible respond.

The consultation started on 9th February and will l continue until Friday 19 March.  All details are  available at  www.suffolk.gov.uk/A12improvements  During the consultation there will be two public virtual events to be held where people can hear a presentation on the proposals and then ask questions – details and link on the webpage.

Census 2021- next month The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have confirmed that the 2021 Census will go ahead as planned on Sunday 21st March 2021.

This is the first “digital-first” census, with people being encouraged to respond online on mobile phones, laptops, PCs or tablets. People can also complete the census over the phone, with the help of ONS trained staff, or by using the traditional paper form.

As  some individuals and communities may need support with the ‘digital-first’ approach, field officers will give help and encouragement to those who have not yet filled in their census questionnaire online or on paper after Census Day. They will be operating in the same way as a postal or food delivery visit. Field staff will never need to enter people’s houses; they will always be socially distanced, wear PPE and work in line with all government guidance.

The information the census collects is vital –  it helps plan and fund services in Suffolk:  transport, education and healthcare amongst other things. Charities also use census information to help get the funding they need. Businesses use it to decide where to set up, which creates job opportunities. It is important to take part.

A total of 94% of people took part in the last census in 2011, helping each county receive its share of public funding. Please help us beat that figure in 2021

Please see attached a Census Handbook designed specifically for Councillors. Links to this and other information are below:

Census 2021 and coronavirus – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/consultations-petitions-and-elections/census-2021

About the census – Census 2021

https://www.suffolkobservatory.info/

 

 

Buses, Care homes, Covid19, Rail, Social care

Covid – when should we wear masks?

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Two older people wearing medical facemasks and giving a victory signFinally, at long last, masks will be MANDATORY on UK public transport from 15 June. Far too late of course – as is to be expected from this craven, risk-averse, milquetoast, chumocratic apology for a government – but hoo-blinking-ray anyway.

Masks help reduce covid transmission and so protect not only passengers but drivers.

33 bus drivers have died in London to date.

Why has this diktat taken so long?  Well, you see, “masks undermine social distancing. Everyone knows that!” But everyone also knows that when the wind changes, your face stays that way. And eating crusts makes your hair curl.

Things everyone knows are not always true.

This week I challenged Suffolk’s Director of Public Health, Stuart Keeble, to supply the scientific evidence for the whole “masks undermine social distancing” story – which has been peddled in the UK at all levels. I called it an “urban myth”. He denied this. But has yet to come back to me with any scientific evidence whatsoever.

On the other side, Dr Greenhalgh – an Oxford Professor of Primary Care and passionate advocate of  mask-wearing to reduce community transmission – has recently published this peer reviewed paper analysing the evidence behind counter arguments and shows it to be (at best) weak:  Face coverings for the public: Laying straw men to rest //onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jep.13415

When I blogged in March (yes, you heard it, MARCH) on how to make your own masks– stating clearly they helped reduce transmission rather than infection and were particularly useful in taking pressure off scanty PPE supplies (and that the pattern was approved by local medics) – o lord, what a fuss there was from local keyboard experts! (A lot of the arguments that were made about this – now far from- controversial idea, are addressed and put to bed in Dr Greenhalgh’s paper.)

Yet it turns out from Suffolk’s latest figures on covid infection in care homes, that the virus must have come in via people from outside: visitors, deliveries, staff.  Care homes were briefed fully on infection control. Transmission was their Achilles heel. Why were they, why were we not alerted to the benefits of wearing masks? The course of the pandemic might have run differently.

Graph showing correlation between mask wearing and infection rates in 4 countries: highest infection per day no masks- UK. Lowest infection and a tradition of masks, Taiwan

Here is an interesting table showing the path of infection in 4 countries – and when each made mask-wearing compulsory. Imagine if everybody in the UK had started wearing facemasks on the day I had blogged – instead of passing on remarks about incorrect usage (really, how hard is it to cover your nose and mouth?),  how they reduced social distancing and so on.

Imagine, if instead of criticising Asia, we in the UK had taken a steer from them, and implemented face covering for all as well as hand washing and social distancing. I would then have not have been receiving emergency masks from anxious friends in China to give to all of us poor Suffolk people they saw as vulnerable and unprotected.Facemasks

 

Buses

B uses abandon Woodbridge: Woodbridge abandons buses

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The 65b Woodridge service seemed to be getting plenty of custom on Good Friday

I gather that the ‘temporary’ Old Barrack Road, Woodbridge stops (which have now been ‘temporary’ in the current situation for the best part of six months) are now intended to become permanent ones some day. Moving them nearer to Newnham Avenue will be counter-productive as they will then be close to the Duke of York stops and further than ever away from the removed Peterhouse stops. Moving them to the top of Warren Hill Road might be an option but they will be close to the existing Warren Hill stops and again be further than ever away from the removed Peterhouse stops.

They are clearly causing problems where they are.

The reason that these ‘temporary stops’ were put where they are is that some attempt was being made to mitigate the drastic local reduction of service caused by removing the Peterhouse ‘loop’ from First bus services six months back. This was compounded by removing the Martlesham section of the route on all 64 buses and reducing the number of 63 services.

I have to add that in this time, the combined efforts of Suffolk County Council and First Buses in cutting services have between them appeared to effect a modal shift AWAY from bus transport in Woodbridge, judging by how much emptier the few remaining buses are. This is the very opposite of what we are trying to achieve and is, perhaps, because the very limited morning/evening buses are now of minimum use for any worker or student:

For example, if I, an elderly disabled non-driver ,want to reach Ipswich and be at my desk reliably by 9am I have the following options. I can

  • take 7.15 or 7.45 bus from the Duke of York and walk/trans-bus from the Cattlemarket
  • Walk a mile and catch 7.35 train, rather than use the bus at all
  • Cycle 9 miles.

Returning at the other end of the day my options are no more attractive

  • I would need to leave work very very sharply at 17.30 in order to catch the last bus to Woodbridge from the Cattlemarket at 17.49.
  • The alternative is taking the very last bus (a 70) at 18.00 that will take an hour to go the country route and will then involve a mile walk home at the Woodbridge end.
  • Or use the hourly trains at 18mins past the hour and walking a mile at the end, rather than use the bus at all. This is easier if one works at Endeavour House than eg Phoenix House.
  • Cycle 9 miles. Often in the dark and rain.

This comprises the first/last bus services into Suffolk’s county town from the 12th largest town in Suffolk.

It also means that as County Councillor with a responsibility for a small is section of north Martlesham, I am obliged to cycle in the dark to Martlesham Town Council meetings, whatever the weather, as there now no available bus service to get me from Woodbridge for 19.15. Indeed there are now very few bus services that do so within the day.  Just to reiterate, I am over 60, and I have a disability that prevents me from driving. It is also increasingly hard for me to walk or cycle, but I – like many of those I represent – have no other options. How many of the officers, elected members  and business people with oversight of these services actually rely on them.  I only know of two other County Councillors who are reliant on public transport.

This is a tragic state of affairs, considering that the councils at all levels have declared a climate emergency. I am hoping it is not intentional. However it seems that the bus service reductions are  undermining our ability to use – let alone make the modal shift to – bus transport, just at the moment when we need to be encouraging it. Will our children and grandchildren forgive us?