Decision details

The Council currently subsidises the operation of bus service 14, which operates to the Gippeswyk Park area of the town. The service is operated by Ipswich Buses and the current service subsidy agreement with them dates from February 2018.

The service operates from Monday to Saturday and provides an hourly off-peak service, with an additional journey in the AM peak period and an additional journey in the PM peak period.

Covid-19 has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of passengers across all bus services, which has had a significant impact on the finances of all bus operators.

The Council does not usually provide any inflationary increase in the rate paid for subsidised bus services during the period of any given service subsidy agreement, and does not intend to do so now. However, in lieu of an inflationary increase and in order to ensure that it remains viable for the current bus operator to continue operating Service 14 during the off-peak period, it has been decided to allow them to cease the operation of the AM and PM peak journeys whilst maintaining the same level of service subsidy. This change takes effect from 30th August 2020.

An alternative option would have been to offer an inflationary increase in the rate paid for the current service, but the budget used to pay for this is fully utilised or allocated.