The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

13 Consultation process

Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 - Part 2 Bus Services Quality Partnership Schemes: Section 5 Consultation as to proposed quality partnership scheme.

Formal statutory consultation

13.1 In the case where there are two or more transport authorities participating in the sQP, and in accordance with the 2001 Act, one transport authority is required to assume lead responsibility for conducting the statutory consultation process. The procedure for consultation should follow the requirements of sQP legislation, and could be undertaken as follows.

The lead authority will publish a notice in at least one local newspaper with a circulation in the area that the proposed scheme will exist. This notice should either outline the proposed specified facilities and specified standards or make a statement to the effect that the contents of this document will be available for viewing at a specific location, on specific dates and times.

Key stakeholder consultation

13.2 Following publication of the notice, the lead authority should consult with the following parties:

• All operators of local bus services likely to be affected by the scheme;
• Organisations that represent the interests of users of local bus services; e.g. local bus forums and Passengers' View Scotland;
• Other local transport authorities whose area is likely to be affected by the scheme, such as neighbouring local transport authorities and RTPs;
• The Scottish Traffic Commissioner;
• The chief officer of police for each police force operating within the scheme area; and
• Any other parties that the transport authority consider appropriate.

13.3 The last bullet point above, consultation with any other appropriate parties, is sufficiently wide in its scope that the lead local transport authority will need to carefully consider who else would be useful consultees in this process. They should consider the Scottish Government (Bus Policy Team), CPT and the Scottish Road Works Commissioner as key stakeholders in the consultation process.

13.4 It is recommended that a copy of the proposed scheme is forwarded to a representative for each of parties above, preferably by email. There is no fixed time limit for consultation but sufficient time should be allowed to ensure that those who are likely to have views have a reasonable opportunity to make a considered response. It is recommended that the absolute minimum time allocated to formal consultation is twelve weeks.

13.5 Consultees should be requested to return their responses in writing to the lead authority. To ease the process, both in terms of providing feedback and analysing responses, it is suggested each element of the sQP is listed within a form with sufficient space for respondents to make comments against each as they see fit. A sample pro forma is contained within Appendix G.

Public consultation

13.6 Although not required by the legislation, consultation could ideally take place with the general public, which may include some form of market research exercise or passenger satisfaction survey before the scheme commences. This could help to inform the development of the sQP and be used to determine the baseline position with regards to public opinion about the local bus network. Subsequent surveys should be carried out once the sQP is in operation as this will enable changes or trends in passenger opinion to be tracked as the scheme progresses, and which could be attributed to the commitments made within the sQP.

Completion of consultation process

13.7 Once the formal consultation process is complete, and all views have been received back from statutory consultees, the transport authority should systematically analyse all responses submitted. Further discussion may be necessary with some respondents to clarify points made. Details of all conversations should be logged.

13.8 It is then at the discretion of the transport authority, after taking into account the results from the consultation, whether to declare the scheme as originally proposed, or whether to make any revisions based on feedback received. The final scheme may require approval by the relevant Council committee of the transport authority (or authorities) subject to the standing orders of the organisations entering into the scheme.

« Previous | Contents | Next »