Council integrated transport co-ordination unit to be created

Highland Councillors have approved the establishment of an integrated transport team to provide the public with a more efficient service.

Based within the Council’s Transport, Environmental and Community Services, the unit will, in the first instance, manage public and school transport contracts currently valued at £14 million.

A future report will outline plans to include the management of Social Work transport functions as well as the Council’s minibus fleet within this integrated unit.

The co-ordination unit will be based in Inverness with devolved locality teams located across the three administrative areas of The Highland Council, namely Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross; Ross Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey.

The Council currently spends £3 million on subsidising public transport contracts, including Community Transport and £11 million on home-to-school transport contracts.

Councillor Bill Fernie, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: “This is an eagerly –awaited initiative which will make us more efficient in the way we deliver public transport services to the public, including the 12,000 pupils who daily use school transport.”

Councillor John Laing, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Transport Environmental and Community Services, said: “Specialist teams will devise more cost-effective contracts, fill gaps in transport provision,  and identify more efficient use of vehicles and improved standards of service provision. ”

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