We held our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 12th May, at the Methodist Church Hall, Mersey Road Redcar.
The meeting opened at 7.00pm, Our Guest Speakers this year included Garry Flynn from The Community Protection Office, who gave a small presentation on 'What the Community Protection Team Do, Who they partner with, and the various roles within Community Safety. Our second speaker was Mr Tony Batty from Arriva, he was asked to speak about Bus / Transport provision within the Redcar Area, (this was as a result of feedback from residents, who complained about lack of Bus Provision within the area. Mr Batty was kind enough to sen us his comments on the meeting which is published below). Both speakers agreed to talk to individual residents after the meeting Closed.
The Meeting was well attended, with over 30 people present.
Comments From Tony Batty ARRIVA Busses
Arriva is a multi national business running buses and trains throughout Europe and even water taxis in Copenhagen. However our head office is local in Sunderland. Arriva North East is the operator of buses in Redcar and Arriva North East runs buses from Berwick in the north of the region to Scarborough and Richmond in the south. Arriva North East employs almost 2000 people and runs over 500 buses. At our local Redcar depot there are 76 buses and 200 staff.
Arriva does not have a franchise or a contract to run most buses. Most buses run without subsidy from the local council or national government. Arriva is therefore free to run them to whatever timetable it thinks makes business sense (i.e. meets the needs of customers and provides a profit). This is subject to holding an operator licence and informing the traffic commissioner with 56 days notice of out intentions. Any holder of “O” licence can do likewise so there is nothing to stop Stagecoach or any other bus operator running buses in Redcar. Routes that no operator thinks can run commercially can be put out to tender by councils and awarded to the operator offering best value (usually lowest price but not always).
We carry out regular surveys of our customer. These surveys show the priority for customers is buses turning up and turning up on time. Not surprising.
I accept over recent weeks that we have not provided the level of service our customers want. We are working hard on making improvements. This includes loaning buses to Redcar from other depots and changing ways in which we run our business.
I assured the meeting of our commitment to the area and to providing a level of service that our customers rightfully expected. Our aim is to be locally focussed and nationally admired.