4.1) Tony Garrett  - There is now a service every 10 minutes to Birkenhead and Arrowe Park Hospital so I would just like to say well done however my friend lives in a side street and has to walk a long way, with walking sticks, to get to the bus stop.  You need to take that into consideration.

Tony McDonough (Merseytravel) – if he is registered disabled then we do have a ‘link’ bus which can get him to the bus stop. 

Chair – we have done a survey for that reason – we were hoping to be able to provide a bus through all the little estates but the cost was in excess of the funds available.  However we do have an application in to accessibility funds for an additional system of volunteer drivers to get people to their GP surgery etc.

4.2) Tony Garrett – there is no service after 6:30pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays – can you update us on this?

Tony McDonough – we are getting ‘new powers’ and when they come into force we will work closely with the Council.  80% are commercially operated who take a revenue risk.  20% is what I run because people don’t want to because it is not commercially viable i.e. small buses to Arrowe Park Hospital – our team are dedicated and will look into this.  If anybody has got any concerns I will take them back with me and I will definitely return with a response.

4.3) Q – We don’t have a direct school bus from Woodchurch to Wallasey.  I have to get the bus at 7:20am to get to school

Tony McDonough – We do provide local school buses and unfortunately if you have decided to go to a non local school I am afraid I could not help you with that as an individual.  It costs £60k per year to run a school bus.  All I can do is apologise.

4.4) Q – Compared to before privatisation, what do we get from our services?

Tony McDonough – will look at everything more even split, we have a good service and work with operators so buses are more often and hopefully in the future we can look at pricing.  We will never get back to how it was but with our strategy, we will get better.

4.5) Q - After a residents forum 2 months ago we were getting reports from young people that they get charged full fare when they are in full time education.  Can teachers sign some sort of ID?  I just feel that the attitude of bus drivers is quite bad and sometimes the young people don’t have the money to pay full fare.

Tony McDonough – drivers have been fully trained and they should never leave anybody behind.

Q – Avon buses did – they left a young girl behind.

Tony McDonough – I will take these issues back to my team and we work closely with schools.

4.6) Maureen Cain – why are we down on buses on the Woodchurch?

Tony McDonough I cannot comment on that I am afraid.  Maybe it was because it was not profitable.  Maybe invite someone from that bus company next time.

4.7) Tony Garrett First Bus have old double decker buses on school routes, is this right?.

Tony McDonough – we do have standards, so old buses should not be utilised.

Chair - Shall we invite the bus companies to the next Area Forum to clarify some of the issues raised tonight?

Public – agreed

4.8) Q – There is no zebra crossing by where I live so we can’t see properly to cross the road

Chair – This is not really a matter for Merseytravel

Dave Green – I will speak to you at the end.  A traffic engineer can come out and meet you.

Chair – I think Joseph Smith is already looking into this so you will need to speak to him as well.

4.9) Tony Garrett – I would just like to point out that it is very hard to get private companies to come to these meetings. We have tried in the past.

Tony McDonough If you do have any questions I will try and answer them. I can do a bulletin of answers and feed them back to Andy.