Essex County Council (ECC) is reviewing its support for 46 local bus services. We want your\u00a0help to ensure that our future bus network is ready to meet new levels of passenger demand\u00a0and is providing value for money. ECC is therefore carrying out this public consultation\u00a0regarding these local bus services.\u00a0This consultation closes on Sunday 26 October 2025.\u00a0
ECC is undertaking a review of local bus\u00a0services which are paid for by Essex taxpayers. It does not cover services\/journeys\u00a0
operated commercially by transport providers. This review covers all 12 districts in Essex\u00a0with the view of assessing whether to continue providing the service.\u00a0
\u00a0
We know that buses are important to many people. \u00a0For example, they help people reach\u00a0employment, education, visit friends and to get to health appointments. The majority of the\u00a0bus network in Essex (around 85%) is run commercially. The remaining 15% of services are\u00a0not commercially viable and the transport providers will therefore not run them.\u00a0As Essex\u2019s local transport authority, when no commercial service is provided, the County\u00a0Council has a duty to consider whether one is needed, and if, in the Council\u2019s view it is, then\u00a0to provide it.\u00a0
How the Council decides whether a service is needed and what services it will support are\u00a0set out in its Local Bus Service Priority Policy, which can be found on\u00a0www.essexhighways.org\/bus-strategy . \u00a0The Local Bus Service Priority Policy now forms\u00a0part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan so has been extended from 2020 to 2026.\u00a0
ECC has a strong record for supporting local bus services and ECC remains committed to\u00a0supporting an effective and efficient bus service network offering value for money to the\u00a0taxpayer in the services it provides.\u00a0
However, the strong financial pressures on all local government funding means that ECC must\u00a0look very carefully at how it will provide all its services to make sure that the limited funding\u00a0available is focused where it will be of most benefit to the public.\u00a0
The services provided under this policy are paid for by Essex taxpayers. The supported\u00a0network mainly operates in rural areas, and at less popular times for travel, such as in the\u00a0evenings and on Sundays. At present ECC spends around \u00a310m of taxpayer\u2019s money on\u00a0
these services each year. The local bus service priority policy includes a value for money\u00a0measure to ensure that taxpayers are not funding services that are not used much or have a\u00a0high cost. This measure is currently valued at \u00a35 per passenger journey. If the cost to the\u00a0taxpayer is over \u00a35 per journey made, then ECC will review the service.\u00a0The value for money measure was suspended during Covid-19 because of changing\u00a0government advice on travel during the various lockdowns and then because ECC wanted to\u00a0
allow services time to recover. Patronage has indeed been increasing. But there are several\u00a0services which were either struggling to attract passengers even before Covid-19 or where\u00a0passengers have not returned. ECC is not proposing to re-introduce the \u00a35 measure\u00a0immediately because there is still some growth in patronage. However, there are several\u00a0services which are substantially over the \u00a35 measure \u2013 in fact they are costing taxpayers more\u00a0than \u00a310 cost per passenger journey to support.\u00a0
These services are detailed later in this document alongside details of any changes or\u00a0proposals.\u00a0
What are we Consulting on?\u00a0
We are consulting on:\u00a0
\u2022 Continuing services as they are now.\u00a0
\u2022 Redesigning services to better reflect how they are used (for example the days of\u00a0operation; routes; the number of journeys and\/or the timetable); or\u00a0
\u2022 Returning some services to commercial operation.\u00a0
We would expect to make an announcement on the outcome of the consultation later this year.\u00a0This means we will be using the most up to date passenger data available in any final\u00a0decisions.\u00a0
The outcome of the consultation may differ from the proposed changes specifically\u00a0listed in the consultation tables following analysis of the response from the public.\u00a0
Why your views matter?\u00a0
In order for us to consider your views, we are seeking your responses on these proposals.\u00a0ECC will collate all the responses from the survey and summarise them as part of our report.\u00a0This report will be used to help decide whether the proposal should be implemented. We will\u00a0not identify individual people and your name will not be mentioned in any reports we write for\u00a0this purpose. You do not have to take part if you don\u2019t want to – this is a voluntary activity.\u00a0
Together, we can create a transportation network that is efficient, accessible, and tailored to\u00a0the diverse needs of passengers. Thank you for your valuable contribution in helping us shape\u00a0the future of public transport.\u00a0
Please note the following consultation only covers ECC supported services as specified in the\u00a0tables on the following survey pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Essex County Council (ECC) is reviewing its support for 46 local bus services. We want your\u00a0help to ensure that our future bus network is ready to meet new levels of passenger demand\u00a0and is providing value for money. ECC is therefore carrying out this public consultation\u00a0regarding these local bus services.\u00a0This consultation closes on Sunday 26 October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":891,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppesfield-pc.gov.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}