Appendix C
WITHDRAWAL OF LOCAL LINK SERVICE.
At the last Community Association meeting there was some discussion of the difficulties people were having attending meetings/functions etc. in the Shevington area when they do not have access to a car. As a result of this concern I undertook to examine what alternative transport there was for those without the use of a car and where conventional bus services were not available. There were (or I thought there were) three basic providers. Local Link, Wigan Accessible Transport (Ring and Ride) and Wigan and District Community Transport. My aim was to put together a leaflet setting out what these organisations could offer.
I found it impossible to find any information about Standish -Shevington Local Link on the Transport for Greater Manchester website. On further inquiry I found that TfGM agreed to withdraw Local Link on October 30 at their July sub committee meeting. As far as I am aware this was done without any consultation with Wigan Council, Shevington Parish Council or local groups within the area.
What is Local Link?
Local Link services are provided by operators under contract to TfGM. It provides public transport in areas where other services are limited. Anyone living in the local area covered can use the service and there are no age or disability restrictions. Local Link is a shared service so users may sometimes travel with other passengers.
The booking centre was open daily between 7.30am and 10.30pm and services ran between these hours on Mondays to Saturdays. Potential passengers were asked to call the centre at least an hour before they needed to travel. Journeys could be booked up to one week in advance as could return journeys. Fares were charged (including concessionary fares) based on the number of zones travelled.
How did Local Link start in Shevington?
In the 1990’s the Government provided grants for transport authorities (at that time the GMPTA) to operate services in rural areas where there was a low level of demand for bus services. GMPTA used this grant to start a service operating between Appley Bridge and Westhoughton via Shevington, Standish, Red Rock and Aspull. This was an hourly daytime service. After a relatively short time this service was withdrawn. The GMPTA suggested its replacement by a Local Link service of door to door transport within a defined area. A number of zones were defined covering Appley Bridge, Wrightington Hospital, Shevington, Shevington Moor, Standish, Red Rock, Aspull and Westhougthton. Crooke was never covered by Local Link. The first operator was Standish Taxis.
Subsequent Changes to the Service.
A further zone was added to the service to embrace Orrell and specifically journeys to St John Rigby College, Orrell RUFC (as it was then), Orrell station and Winstanley College. At the same time the Westhoughton zone was removed and expanded. (This area still has a Local Link service). With the withdrawal of bus services to Red Rock Local Link was expanded to provide for journeys to Wigan Infirmary and Wigan town centre. (This facility was not available in any of the other zones). The last operator was Horwich Private Hire
Fares were raised in April 2011 alongside the changes to concessionary fares. A few years ago Hindley Local Link was started covering Aspull, Pennington Green, Hindley, Hindley Green, Ince and Platt Bridge. This is now the only Local Link service remaining in Wigan Borough and is operated by Wigan and District Community Transport.
Conclusions.
In their report in July 2011 Transport for Greater Manchester described the following attributes of the Local Link service:-
It provides a service in Red Rock, Haigh, estates in the east of Shevington and to the north east of Orrell.
It operates at times when some local bus services do not and provides journeys to and from Wrightington hospital and Bradley Hall trading estate and within parts of Standish before 9.00 and after 18.30.
It provides evening journeys between the north and the south of the area.
At least half of the journeys on Local Link cannot easily be made by mainstream services. To attempt to cover these journeys by implementing a mainstream services or services would be at a higher cost than Local Link.
It provides a service to Wrightington hospital in the early morning when buses do not operate, otherwise involving a walk of over a mile on unpopulated roads.
It provides some work journeys and takes children to bus stops to meet buses to schools.
All the above are excellent reasons why this service or something like it should have been retained. It will be recalled that only a few years ago the daytime service to Wrightington hospital was withdrawn leaving no morning peak services from the Shevington area. The loss of this link should have strengthened the need for Local Link to have been retained. It is said that Wigan ATL (Ring and Ride) provides an alternative but this is only available to those who qualify to use the service.
TfGM have said “The Standish Local Link service is poorly performing in terms of cost, and patronage has declined in eight months out of 12 during 2010/2011 compared to the same period during 2009/2010. A reduced daytime option was tendered in an effort to reduce the cost per journey, this was unsuccessful.” This statement seems somewhat in conflict with the attached table derived from a report to the sub committee in August 2011. This shows that year on year patronage increased by nearly 6% and that other services in Greater Manchester had similar or higher costs than Standish Local Link. Furthermore Wigan’s Transport Strategy, that the Parish Council recently commented on, advocates expansion of Local Link services.
The most serious issue was the lack of consultation on this service withdrawal.
The Parish Council might like to consider asking TfGM for a meeting to discuss public transport in the Shevington with particular reference to cross border links with Wrightington hospital, journeys to work and access to clubs and other organisations in the evenings.
Barry King
21 November 2011