Councils could work together to manage transport services
RHONDDA Cynon Taf council is considering working with a neighbouring local authority to manage passenger transport services.
Discussions are underway between the councils about the two Integrated Transport Units (ITUs) in Caerphilly and RCT, working collaboratively to provide services such as public bus services, school transport and transport for vulnerable adults and children.
It would see a “centre of excellence” created for delivering passenger transport services across both local authority areas.
The report says there have been growing pressures on staff resources, particularly at the managerial level and across Wales, the number of managers is reducing because of retirement and increased competition from fellow councils, Transport for Wales and transport consultancies.
Both councils have been affected by such pressures but the report says both already have well-run and adequately resourced ITUs providing services for public bus services, home to school transport and social services transport for vulnerable adults and children.
The proposal is for a joint management structure and for the two councils to share resources under a memorandum of understanding.
A joint board/steering group would be set up with representation from each council covering audit, education, finance, human resources, social services and transport needs.
At this stage, each ITU would remain independent and self-sufficient and only after a year would they be able to judge how the collaboration is performing.
Policy decisions such as eligibility criteria for school transport will remain entirely a matter for the individual councils with the joint transport unit focusing on managing transport services.
The combined service would have a budget of around £35m, with RCT accounting for £20.5m of this and Caerphilly £14.2m.
RCT’s budget for public bus transport would be just over £9m, for home to school transport it would be £10.2m and for social services transport it would be £1.2m.
For Caerphilly the public bus transport budget would be £5.5m, the home to school transport budget would be £7.1m and the social services transport budget would be £1.5m.
The report says the proposal would make best use of the financial and staff resources for both councils and contribute to reducing their carbon footprints.
It is going before RCT’s cabinet on Thursday, February 13 to get cabinet members’ initial backing with a further report to come back to cabinet after that.