Here are the Minutes from the last Garioch Area Bus Forum held in September.The next meeting will be held in Westhill in the spring.

garioch-area-bus-forum-minutes-22-sept-2016

Garioch Bus Forum meets on Thursday 22nd September at Kemnay Village Hall at 7.30pm. Representatives from Aberdeenshire Council and Stagecoach will be on hand to answer any bus-related queries. I will not be able to attend due to another local meeting, but can pass on any comments to the Chair so that they can be discussed at the forum. Please feel free to go along and raise local issues. The Agenda for Thursday’s meeting along with the Minutes of the previous meeting can be found below:

Garioch Area Bus Forum Papers (22 Sept 2016)

Following much lobbying to get the Broadshade area of Westhill served by public transport and requests made at the Garioch Area Bus forums for an additional link to Echt, Stagecoach are proposing the following timetable changes to the X18 service from 4th July 2016.

Stagecoach Managing Director, Steve Walker said “whilst you will see the frequency has gone from 20 to 30 minutes, the service will now give a direct journey for people of Hilltop Avenue etc and we will be taking account of the Broadshade development. There is also an additional link from Echt”.

Please see the revised timetable below and I would welcome any feedback.

X18 Final 04 07 16

That is the aim of today’s Pedal on Parliament campaign and whilst unfortunately the snow showers in Westhill made me ditch my pedals in favour of the hydrogen bus, I was delighted to meet the campaigners at Marischal College this afternoon and support their manifesto which includes proper funding for cycling, safer speeds where people live, work and play and the integration of cycling in to local transport strategies.

The Aberdeen Cycling Forum organised the bike ride from Hazlehead Park to Marischal College to coincide with the event at Holyrood today. You can find out more about the forum here.

The campaign was aimed at Scottish Parliament candidates. Our candidate for Aberdeenshire West, Mike Rumbles gave his backing and said “Congratulations for helping to publicise the real need to improve facilities for walkers and cyclists. We really do need to encourage both walking and cycling and less reliance on our cars. This is one way of doing that.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today said that helping more Scots get on their bikes will not happen by accident as he set out a Lib Dem three-point plan to encourage more people to cycle and walk.

Speaking from Pedal on Parliament in Edinburgh after riding in with a group from Fife, Mr Rennie warned that cycle safety needs to be at the heart  of the planning process and set out plans for £20m of new investment in active travel.

The Lib Dem three-point plan would:

• Increase the share of the transport budget that is spent on cycling and active transport by adding £20 million of capital spending;
• Support safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists with more dedicated and segregated cycle lanes;
• Revise the current Cycling by Design guidelines to reflect international best practice and increase their authority to make them core national standards, ensuring safe provision for cyclists and pedestrians is built in to the road system.

Commenting, Mr Rennie said:

“Active travel helps keep us fit and healthy and cuts our carbon emissions but increasing the number of journeys made by bike or on foot will not happen by accident. Improving safety is vital for that and our plans would see bike safety put at the heart of the planning process.

“We need action to increase investment in both cycling and walking, improve dedicated cycling infrastructure and ensure that people are confident that they can ride their bike safely.

“The Liberal Democrat three-point plan would deliver millions of pounds of investment and help reach the target of 10 per cent of journeys being by bike by the end of the next parliament.”

On 18th April, 2016, there will be a service revision to the X17 with a reduction of frequency from every 10 minutes to every 12 minutes.

All journeys will now serve Kingswells Park & Ride.

Prospect Road, Westhill is no longer served on Saturdays.

Journey re-timing:

1448 hours ex Aberdeen Union Square – Elrick – Aberdeen Union Square (Monday to Friday) return journey is re-routed to additionally serve Prospect Road, Westhill at 1540 hours.

Additonal return journey:

1724 hours ex Aberdeen Union Square – Elrick – Aberdeen Union Square (Saturday).

Apologies for the belated reporting back from the Bus Forum held on 14th March – lots of issues raised – a request from Echt residents to have a Saturday service via the X18 will be explored. Westhill new bus shelters should now be in place. A further request for a night bus via Sauchen was discounted citing low demand previously. The lack of service to the Broadshade estate is still an issue. We are told that the reliability of hydrogen buses have improved. Transport officers reported a marked reduction of all travel modes in and around Aberdeen in recent months.

The next Bus Forum is to be held in Westhill Academy on Monday 14th March at 7.30-9pm. The relevant papers are here:

Garioch ABF Papers (14 March 2016)

If you have any local issues to raise, please come along or send your comments to me via email.

Please note that the next Bus Forum will be held on Thursday 1st October 2015 from 7.30-9pm in Kemnay Village Hall. I am disappointed that this meeting is not in Westhill as venues are usually on a rotation basis. I am assured that the Spring forum will be held in Westhill! Please come along to meet transport representatives as well as fellow travellers and raise any issues you may have.

Agenda for the meeting plus Minutes from previous meeting can be viewed below.

GARIOCH ABF PAPERS

I’m looking forward to getting on my bike this week again as Aberdeenshire Council peddles their inaugural cycling challenge bringing sustainable transport to the fore.

People across the North-east are being invited to participate in the first ever Aberdeenshire-wide Cycling Challenge from September 7 – 27, supported by Aberdeenshire Council.

In association with Love to Ride, an organisation working across the UK to encourage more people to cycle, the council is inviting local businesses and organisations as well as their own staff to participate. The challenge is to get as many people as possible signed up to cycle just 10 minutes on as many days as they can for three weeks – it’s not about how fast or far you cycle but how many individuals from your team, department and/or organisation get on their bikes.

It’s free to enter and participants can sign up at http://www.lovetoride.net/aberdeenshire It’s open to all local organisations and if yours is already listed you can select it from a drop down menu or register your organisation and become a local champion for the cause.

Following a public consultation last year, Stagecoach have been working with partners, including Aberdeenshire Council to improve the service within Westhill and district.

From 16th August, 2015 there will be a new No 16 to service the town of Westhill – on an hourly basis – starting at Broadstraik roundabout – travelling along A944 towards Tesco roundabout, heading up Westhill Drive to turning circle coming back down via Hillside Road, Westhill Drive, down to Tesco and finishing off at Prospect Road. This would allow passengers from the top of Westhill to have a link to the X17 which will remain unchanged.

The X18 will be every 20 minutes from Aberdeen to Broadstraik roundabout and every third journey will go out to Alford (meaning Alford is served much better than at present). The X18 will go via ARI (please note drop off will be on Westburn Road, opposite Foresterhill Health Centre, not the main hospital entrance).

In effect passengers will have the choice of X17 every 10 minutes via Queen’s Road or the X18 every 20 minutes via ARI. I do realise that although residents at the top of the hill would prefer to have just one journey to Aberdeen, the new town service (16) will at least afford transport up and down to connect with the Aberdeen services.

I am also aware that this still leaves the Broadshade development out of the loop as far as bus provision picking up/dropping off within this estate is concerned. I have been assured by Stagecoach that they will look at Broadshade again once the new timetable beds in. I will make sure that this issue remains on the agenda at future bus forums and any meetings we have with Stagecoach/Aberdeenshire Council transport unit.

The new timetable for services 16 and X17 from 16th August can be viewed here

Please note that the 218 will be discontinued. The new X18 timetable as of 16th August can be viewed here

Katie is currently doing her dissertation project for university which will be looking at cycling to work in Aberdeenshire with Westhill being one of the areas she is focusing on. She is hoping to get an idea of current commuter patterns and to see how to get more people to cycle to work. If you have a spare couple of minutes, Katie would really appreciate you filling out her questionnaire. It’s for cyclists and non-cyclists so feel free to pass it on to other people. Katie is also keen to interview organisations and individuals to gather data, so please contact her at: k.bain.12@aberdeen.ac.uk

And please complete her survey here.

Thank you.