Increased council subsidy for Normanby Enterprise Park Services

Back in July I posted about the renewal of the de minimis funding by North Lincolnshire Council for certain weekday daytime extensions of Hornsby Travel service 4 between Brigg to Scunthorpe up to the Normaby Enterprise Park. At the time it was noted these services were seeing declining use.

That decline is continuing, meaning falling revenue for Hornsby Travel. In addition they are also facing rising costs and as such have increased the price they will operate the journeys for from £41.55 to £60 a day from November. Hornsby also cite that the extensions prevent the operation of a clockface timetable between Scunthorpe and Brigg at certain times of the day as another reason for the price increase (Hornsby must think this looses them revenue).

Tendering these journeys in the open market has been dismissed by the council as unlikely to cite much operator interest, and the fact they operate through to/from Brigg via Broughton and Ashby and regarded as 'helpful to users'.

With the journeys regarded as important to provide access to jobs, North Lincolnshire Council have decided to accept Hornsby Travel's price increase to £60 a day and agreed to fund the journeys until March 2011, but with a review in March 2010. Extra publicity will also be carried out to try and attract extra users.

Click here to read the full council report.