THE public have been given three months to help shape a major county transport plan.

Councillors agreed to set up a 12-week consultation into Worcestershire County Council’s transport plan which gives the public the opportunity to voice their thoughts on how the bus system should be run.

Councillor Alan Amos, cabinet member for highways, said the whole £30 million transport budget was under review with “no exemptions and no exclusions.”

“The aim of the consultation is to find out what transport system the public want, how much they are prepared to pay for it and what support the county can give,” he told cabinet members at a meeting on Thursday (June 6).

Cllr Amos affirmed the strategy would put the county’s transport system on a “secure, long-term foundation that meets the needs of residents whether going to work, health care, education, shopping or social activities.”

The draft strategy looks at every form of transport both provided and supported by the county council across Worcestershire, including commercial and subsidised bus services, home-to-school transport, community transport and social care transport.

The county council currently spends around £30 million a year on a range of services including transport for children and adults in care as well as transport for students to and from home and school and for the elderly and disabled who travel to day centres.

Around 10,000 pupils use home-to-school transport in Worcestershire every day, including 2,500 with special educational needs and disabilities.

Cllr Amos said the council was looking at creating a “co-ordinated and rationalised system” for home-to-school and social care transport based on “best value and cost-effectiveness, routing out duplication and waste and increasing efficiency.”

The review would also look at fares and ticketing, real-time bus information, bus shelters and integrated transport between bus, rail and cycling.

Cllr Tony Miller said bus services could only be maintained if the public show they are regularly used.

He said: “There is no point in a bus running with three or four people on it and you can’t maintain a service that only has three or four people on it.”

Once approved, the document would set out the council’s vision for transport up to 2030.