Please note invite from Chew Valley CIC Sustainable Transport Partnership re buses
——– Forwarded Message ——–
| Subject: | Invitation for Saturday 16th Event to circulate to Parish Councillors and parishioners |
|---|---|
| Date: | Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:38:40 +0000 |
| From: | Jackie Head |
| To: |
Dear Parish Clerk
We hope your Parish Councillors will want to attend, to find out more for themselves and consider ways they could support the scheme. At present we are seeking funding to place bike stands next to the bus stops and have £500 from Bishop Sutton Parish Council provided we offer matched funding; might you parish consider contributing to this fund in order to meet this goal as soon as possible. We are also seeking funding to help us subsidise courses and events to support those returning to cycling or new to e-cycling. If you would like to consider this please do let us know and we will put in a CIL application.
Please find attached an invitation to an event this coming Saturday (16th March, 10-12.30 in Bishop Sutton Village Hall) to launch the membership for the new WESTlocal bus route starting in the Chew Valley on April 10th. The X91 Chew Valley Sprint will operate Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) as a once a day return service.
We would be really grateful if you could circulate this invitation on your networks and encourage your parishioners to attend. This new fixed route, aimed at commuters is picking up from Bishop Sutton, Chew Stoke and Chew Magna, as these were the areas where demand was shown to be highest in surveys carried out last Autumn. However, it is not just for people in those villages. We are planning a range of interventions to facilitate people travelling to the bus from nearby parishes such as yours and we will be talking about this and showcasing these ideas at the event too.
Funding for the first year of this bus service is secured and at £2 for a single journey (£4 return) it will make travelling to work in Bristol far more affordable and potentially quicker than taking the car, especially when you consider the savings in Parking charges. Members can book a seat up to a week in advance, or anyone can hop on on the day without membership to take advantage of any unbooked seats or standing places. This is a 29 seater bus with 11 standing spaces, so we need people to build it into their commuter habit so that we prove the need for this service. It can be used by anyone for any reason (you don’t have to be a commuter) and you can just book one off one way journeys if desired.
There is the potential for the service to continue for a further year (until the end of March 2026) but uptake in the first year will be a significant factor in decision making. So please encourage people to use it or lose it.
As well as having the chance to sign up as members of the new WESTlocal X91 Chew Valley Sprint at the event, there will be opportunities to listen to talks about the scheme, to speak to local people involved in making the bid, to meet a member of the Transpora Team ( the company who will be operating the bus) and to others engaged in encouraging active travel and using WESTlink to travel from Chew Valley villages to the 3 stops in Bishop Sutton, Chew Stoke and Chew Magna.
We will be taking expressions of interest in ‘Cycle with Confidence’ trainings to carry out in the Chew Valley villages and Dr Bike MOT sessions, to establish which parishes would be best placed to host these. Local people can bring along their bike or ebike on Saturday for a free mini MOT ( places will be allocated on a first come first served basis).
Both Jacob Rees Mogg MP and Dan Norris West of England Metro Mayor will be attending and speaking at the event and part of what we will be offering is the chance to chat to these local decision makers and feed back your ideas for future bus services in the Chew Valley through our ‘imaginarium’ interactive display.
We will also be launching a new questionnaire to consider other bus routes that might be wanted in the area, building on this first fixed route bus.
We hope your Parish Councillors will want to attend, to find out more for themselves and consider ways they could support the scheme. At present we are seeking funding to place bike stands next to the bus stops and have £500 from Bishop Sutton Parish Council provided we offer matched funding; might you parish consider contributing to this fund in order to meet this goal as soon as possible. We are also seeking funding to help us subsidise courses and events to support those returning to cycling or new to e-cycling. If you would like to consider this please do let us know and we will put in a CIL application.
Warm wishes
Jackie Head
on behalf of Chew Valley CIC Sustainable Transport Partnership.
Public-meeting-invite-160324-v1.pdf- Posted: 13th March 2024