Council Services

[Mikethewatch]

Or, when all the smaller firms have gone to the wall, up goes the price!
Remember you're dealing here with CCBC, same people who spend millions on a building that they have no idea what to do with....

[SDQ]

Or, when all the smaller firms have gone to the wall, up goes the price!
Remember you're dealing here with CCBC, same people who spend millions on a building that they have no idea what to do with....

I know of a few occasions where contracts have been thrown back to CCBC who have then had to pay an inflated subsidy to get the company to carry on operating the service as there is no other option. School contract services are usually operated with the oldest vehicles in the fleet which have already seen many years of stage carriage work, so can be costly to maintain. You only need to have a couple of blown engines and with a low tender the profit margin can look a bit grim. If one company has the monopoly and the smaller firms have gone there would be nothing to stop them going back to CCBC and basically naming their price to keep the services running. Suddenly the original offer wasn't so good after all. CCBC should tread carefully before making their decision if this story is true.

[Yorkie]

When some of us were kids we had to use Shank's Pony to get to school, often a few miles.   For the younger ones that meant walk!   

[Ian]

there would be nothing to stop them going back to CCBC and basically naming their price to keep the services running.

I saw this, and thought 'but the lawyers would draft the contract so it couldn't be changed' then remembered who we're dealing with...

:Sisyphus:

[Yorkie]

But isn't the CEO of CCBC legally qualified?   He would get it right, surely?    ZXZ

[SteveH]

Of course he would, how can you doubt him/them, you just have to look at their past record....ah..ok..

[Michael]

  Yes, Yorkie, you are correct about walking to school in the old days. However things have changed. Every village had at least a primary school. But over the years it was decided they were uneconomical and had to close. When there was uproar the relevant Council immediately said "hold on, we will provide a free bus service to the brand new large school sometimes miles away."
   So the Councils are now stuck with it. Yorkie is right that walking doesn't seem to be an option now, but buses were used by schoolchildren even if they had to pay when I was a child---and thats a long time ago.
  Believe it or not around about 1945 a small bus, presumably Crosville, used to come around midday right up to Colwyn Bay Grammar School, now Eirias, and start off with pupils, me included, and take them close to their homes, I lived in Rhos, for their midday meal. And then you caught the service bus back.
  That was if you absolutely hated the school dinner.

[Michael]

   Its official now. As everyone in the business suspected, its Alpine that has got the lot.
    The council claim it will save #260,000, presumably per annum. Contracts covered number 36. Thats a lot less than previously mentioned, I think the original was 54. So whether it covers the whole of Conwy Council territory I don't know. But that is what was originally stated.
   There will be a lot of disgruntled sore heads at Abacab, Llew Jones, Arriva, Voel to mention just a few.

[Ian]

Yorkie is right that walking doesn't seem to be an option now

Not sure I entirely agree. The decline in community-based Primary schools is a problem, granted, but most of the bus/taxi services are used to ferry children the distances - as you note, Mike - from the remoter communities and farms to the scattered secondary schools, yet there's been no change in their location for many, many years. Years ago kids simply walked the footpaths.  It involved very long walks, of course, and in very changeable weather, but today parents have become neurotic about their children, and either drive them everywhere or expect the council to do it.

We're always being told that one of the biggest threats to the future of our children is the rapidly growing obesity issue, which in itself is inextricably linked to a lack of exercise, as well as parents giving their children what they like, instead of what they need. The footpaths still exist from the farms to the schools, so perhaps it might do the children no harm to use them from time to time.

Of course, none of this addresses the situation about Alpine, and its now almost total monopoly of the school run service. It'll be very interesting to see how this pans out.

[Yorkie]

Did anyone expect anyone but Alpine to get the contract?    ZXZ

[SteveH]

   Its official now. As everyone in the business suspected, its Alpine that has got the lot.
    The council claim it will save #260,000, presumably per annum. Contracts covered number 36. Thats a lot less than previously mentioned, I think the original was 54. So whether it covers the whole of Conwy Council territory I don't know. But that is what was originally stated.
   There will be a lot of disgruntled sore heads at Abacab, Llew Jones, Arriva, Voel to mention just a few.

CONWY BUDGET: Conwy's Cabinet meets this afternoon to discuss the authority's budget.
 Members will be told that the budget for 2014/2015 included a business case for Home to School Transport in the sum of £150k for provision of seat belts.
 The contract has now been let for a lower than estimated sum and as a result there is a £50k saving on the available budget for the scheme.

My understanding of the above, is that CBCC is paying to fit seat belts, in a private companies busses.  ?

[Mikethewatch]

Any why would this come as any surprise?
Happy enough to fit out a 'Bistro' in the skip at no cost to tenant......

[Fester]

This is what happens (eventually) in Surrey, if you defy the council's planning dept.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-35928269