North Yorkshire Accessible Transport Group
Tuesday 23rd January 2024
1pm until 3pm
Meeting Minutes
People who came to the meeting
Sandy Marshall Inclusion North
Daniel Proctor
Ian Lawson
Andrew Clarke
John Laking
Inclusion North
Yorkshire Coast Disability Forum and North Yorkshire Disability Forum
North Yorkshire Council
North Yorkshire Council
Dawn Hague Keyring
Lavinia Bell NRS Health Care
Nigel Thompson Disability Action Yorkshire
Phil Dodson Selby District Disability Forum
People who could not come to the meeting
Christopher Porter Keyring
Helen Williams North Yorkshire Council
Judith Owen Whitby DAG Diane Tymon Sight Support Ryedale
Welcome and Introductions
Sandy welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Everyone introduced themselves.
Ground rules reminder
Ground rules include:
- Respecting each other
- Speaking up if unsure
- Avoiding using initials or shortening words or names.
- Make sure we use everyday language.
- To keep your microphones on mute when not speaking in the online meetings.
- To use the reaction buttons to raise your hands when you would like to speak in the online meetings.
Actions from Last Meeting
Disability Action Yorkshire have been carrying out training with Transdev and it now includes taxi training.
The training by Disability Action Yorkshire is currently being delivered by disabled people.
Helen Williams did not attend meeting so could not provide an update on Let’s Talk Transport plans.
Gina Mulderring did not attend meeting so could not provide an update on Accessible Information.
The groups meeting with Councillor Keane Duncan has not yet taken place.
Actions for This Meeting:
Further contact required with Helen Williams.
Further contact required with Gina Mulderrig.
Due to ongoing elections further contact with Councillor Duncan Keane required.
Public Transport Issues Update
Ian provided an update on Public Transport issues:
The traffic consultant report on accessible taxis mentioned in previous meeting is now due to be released.
The number of accessible taxis across North Yorkshire has gone down compared to a year ago.
Access to training and the cost of licenses are causing issues for Taxi drivers to be accessible.
Actions:
The group to review travel consultants taxi accessibility report before next meeting.
Update from North Yorkshire Council
John Laking and Andrew Clarke provided an update from the Council:
The council did a survey on local transport and after its huge response created the Local Transport Plan.
The local transport plan found a number of issues and they have been working one to one with a number of groups on making theses better.
The council intend to put a new plan together to show how they intend to make things better for accessible transport and it will be available at the end of march.
After the local elections in May the new mayor will look at the plan and decide a timetable on making improvements.
The council have been focused on maintaining supported bus services and bringing back services that had been reduced because of covid.
The supported bus services are funded by government grants and from the council who expect extra funding in the next financial year.
The council are currently looking to find new bus operators to take on these new supported bus services but it is a big task due to the size of the county.
The national scheme for £2 fares on every bus service has now been extended till the end of this year and this will encourage more people to use bus services.
The council will release a report in April explaining all the details of the supported bus networks and the changes that have been made.
Any complaints about supported bus services must be made to the council and will be looked at individually.
Actions:
The council to look into complaints about disability access on buses.
The council to share their new supported bus services plan with the group when it’s released.
North Yorkshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy
Sandy updated the group on North Yorkshire Councils Health and Wellbeing Strategy:
North Yorkshire Council have a Health and Wellbeing board who have put a plan together which includes accessible transport.
The health and wellbeing plan has been made in easy read format and will be shared with the group.
North Yorkshire Autism Group have also put together a plan which includes accessible transport but it has not been released yet.
The Autism Group worked with focus groups of disabled people to gather information for their strategy document.
Both the Health and Wellbeing board and the Autism Group have online surveys on the council website.
Actions:
Group need to find out who the chairpersons of both the Health and Wellbeing board and Autism Strategy Group are.
Sandy to share strategy documents with the group.
The Future of the Group
The group is funded by Adult Social Care Engagement Team but the funding is due to run out at the end of March.
Adult Social Care Engagement Team are likely to extend their funding but only for the short term.
The Motability Foundation may be able to provide funding to the group but a meeting will need to be arranged with them to find out.
Larger funding would allow the group to have more resources and do things like face to face meetings.
Actions:
A meeting to be arranged for group to discuss future funding.
A meeting with Motability needs arranging.
Sandy to speak to Inclusion North Chief Exec about future funding options.
Any Other Business
A meeting is still to be arranged for Christopher and Oliver to meet with Councillor Keane Duncan on behalf of the group.
Please send any questions for Councillor Duncan to Daniel Proctor officeadmin@inclusionnorth.org
Disability Action Yorkshire has set up a meeting to discuss disability access on all public transport and has invited bosses from public transport providers and from North Yorkshire Council.
Please send any questions for Nigel to bring up at the Disability Action Yorkshires public transport meeting to nigel.thompson@da-y.org.uk
Date and Time of the next meeting
14th March 2023 1pm – 3pm
