Wollondilly Council has committed to continuing to provide of a community transport service for its growing and changing community, directly funding third-party providers so community groups can use the service.
This updated model will mean eligible Wollondilly based community groups can use suitable third-party transport services to hire either an appropriate vehicle, or a vehicle and driver, with Council footing the bill up to the value of $500 per trip.
Mayor Matt Gould said, "First and foremost, this is a question about how we most effectively and efficiently provide a transport service to the community moving forward, not whether or not we should provide it."
"I firmly believe that Council needs to continue to provide a transport service for those community organisations within the Shire that need it, but we need to do so in a way that gets the best possible outcome for our community and makes the best use of ratepayers' funds."
"Given the long term decline we have seen in the usage of the service we are currently at a point where the third-party model is the best way to provide this service with the current level of interest. It strikes a balance between the responsible use of our ratepayers' money while providing a service to those who need it."
He noted, "In the years immediately prior to the Covid lockdowns the bus was only being used four or five times a month on average, and then was required to be taken off the road through the Covid period."
"Our current community bus turns 15 this year and can't be used for this service beyond October this year. Providing a transport service through a grant scheme strikes the right balance considering the with the low level of community usage."
"Council has agreed that we will consider directly providing a community transport service once more if the usage of the service over any 12 months increases to the point it is more efficient to directly provide a bus."
There has been very low usage of the interim grant scheme that has been in place since July 2022, with only three uses of the service in six months. Feedback from many historical bus user groups is that they no longer use Council's service as they now access alternative transport solutions through programs such as the NDIS that better meet their specific needs.
The current reimbursement program criteria will be adjusted to make it easier for users by inviting suitably qualified and experienced Community and Commercial transport operators to be a preferred third-party provider to Council via a procurement process. This will allow Council to pay the third-party provider directly up to the value of $500 to allow ease of access to the program.
Council has committed to make all efforts to ensure the process for using the grant scheme and accessing a third-party providers' services are as efficient, user friendly, and simple as possible for the users of the service. Council will also be looking at ways to link up community members who are interested in volunteering to act as drivers with community groups that can't provide their own driver.
The current bus, with a market value of $15,500, will be appropriately decommissioned in accordance with Council's Asset Disposal policies and procedures.
"Council has also been approached by community groups keen on our current bus so we've decided to look at donating it, and will be calling for Expressions of Interest from appropriate community groups shortly," said the Mayor.
Council will continue to advocate to State and Federal governments to provide better delivery of public transport services as well as community transport provision within Wollondilly.
