Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2023.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 12 December 2023 were approved as a correct record.

Councillors and officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests which they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made.

To consider a report of the Deputy Chief Executive.

The Deputy Chief Executive submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) presenting the draft Scrutiny Review Panel final report including conclusions and recommendations.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·       The draft report reflected the work of the review panel, the methodology of the review, the key issues raised and the conclusions drawn.

·       Members requested that the Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) be utilised as a measure of the performance of bus franchising. Measures such as revenue and cost were subject to external factors such as inflation which, over time, made comparisons less meaningful. The PVR, expressed in terms of the number of peak buses deployed, was a standard bus industry measure of output and would provide information about what the Council was getting for its money. Furthermore, the PVR value could be related to bus hours or bus-miles operated if it was more widely adopted by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The PVR was also a non-confidential figure and did not divulge any commercially sensitive figures on costs and revenue.

·       Members commented that there was a significant risk associated with the bus franchising strategy. The strategy made assumptions related to the levels of increase in utilisation of the bus service and the impact of a one per cent variation was significant. A request was made that the report should reflect the seriousness of the risks and importance of risk management, monitoring and reporting.

·       It was commented that the Bus Services Act 2017, which allowed franchising, put in place some constraints in terms of how quickly TfGM was able to respond to changes in demand or changes to the network. Members requested that this factor be included in the final report.

RESOLVED – That the report be agreed subject to the following amendments:

(1)  The addition of PVR as a measure of the performance of bus franchising.

(2)  A greater emphasis on the potential risks of bus franchising.

(3)  That the constraints of the Bus Services Act 2017 upon TfGM’s ability to respond to change be included.