A new trial minibus service for Gloucestershire residents in the areas with the poorest access to public transport has been approved by council leaders.
There are 5,306 households without access to a car in the south Forest of Dean and 1,606 in the north Cotswolds.
Both areas fall within some of the most deprived areas in Gloucestershire in terms of a resident’s access to key services by public transport within 45 minutes.
Gloucestershire County Council wants to remedy this situation with a new trial minibus service which will help link up the communities with the rest of the county.
Cabinet approved a project to provide the demand responsive transport (DRT) in these areas which will run for two years.
The plan is for two wheelchair accessible minibuses to be based in each area and the service will run from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday.
Economy, education and skills cabinet member Philip Robinson said: “There will be no fixed timetable, there won’t even be a strictly defined route.
“The service will only visit an area where there is an actual demand.
“This should go a long way to overcoming the inefficiencies that result in rural transport often being unviable.
“The scheme will work with existing services, not in competition against them.
“Indeed, existing services will benefit in so far as the new DRT service will deliver passengers to these established groups on which those passengers can continue their journeys.
“Any of Gloucestershire’s licensed bus services will be able to bid to become the operators of the DRT services.”
The cabinet gave its approval to buy the new minibuses, contract an operator to run the services, and another organisation to run the booking and scheduling aspect of the service.
The Department for Transport has provided £1.352 million to the council to fund the service for two years.
The service may continue after the project ends depending on how successful it turns out to be.
The cost of running the service is expected to be £855,000 for the first year and £497,000 for the subsequent year.
It will cost £358,000 to buy the four minibuses and £812,000 to contract an operator to run the service.
The council will spend £100,000 contracting an organisation to run the booking and scheduling element of the service and £83,000 on branding, marketing, monitoring and evaluating the scheme.
