Last week we met with residents on the route of our 52 service for a general catch-up and an opportunity to share latest news and get passenger feedback.  We held two meetings: one in Woodingdean and one in Ovingdean, and alongside the meetings we’ve also been running a survey.

The main news shared at the meeting was that the existing contract for Route 52 (which relies on Brighton & Hove City Council for the majority of its funding) was due to expire this September, but the contract has been renewed for another year.  We’re very happy that it is continuing and residents also expressed great relief. The million dollar question of course is what happens next year but we will continue to support residents to keep their bus service as we understand how much of a lifeline it is for them.

It was great to hear feedback from residents, and on the whole this was very positive.  Residents said they liked the new ticket machines and the fact they can now use key cards and mobile tickets on the service.  They also liked the new bus on the route, even though currently it’s not yellow (it’s a temporary trial bus so we can’t paint it!) The new bus was reported to be very comfortable, and has also improved reliability. Residents were unanimous in their praise for the drivers, which was lovely to hear.

In terms of improvements, the main request was for an improved information system to give real-time running information, so we are taking steps to get the ball rolling on that and hope to include it when we move to the new electric buses.

Feedback from our survey was very similar to feedback from residents at our meetings; the main findings are below:

Then towards the end we asked people to rate the service:

By no means a scientific sample (14 respondents in total) but it did give us a flavour of how we’re doing, and it was nice to see most respondents ‘very’ or ‘mostly’ satisfied!  There were no scores of ‘never’, and at most only one ‘rarely’ in each category; and the three ‘rarelys’ were from the same person, who also reported that they used the bus ‘only occasionally’ and declined to answer the question on how we can improve the service… So we’re not sure what to do with that one!

But what do YOU think?! Put your comments in the box below 🙂

 

Today is World Happiness Day.  By complete coincidence, it’s also the day we had our Staff Day, and our AGM.  Which is all very apt, as happiness runs through everything we do, from our vision to our ideals, our goals, our hopes and dreams for our staff team, the experience we give our passengers on our buses, and our community at large.

During the course of the day with the team we explored a number of questions such as “Your aims for The Big Lemon”, “What you most enjoy about your job”, “One thing you would change” and “One thing you want to do before you die”.  Without wanting to get too morbid, the aim of the day was to take a step back from the coalface (or the renewable energy frontline!) and consider our priorities, hopes and dreams, for The Big Lemon but also for ourselves and our colleagues.

Following all this hard work it was time for a well-earned cup of tea 🙂

Then it was off to the pub for team Sunday lunch before heading over to Brighton’s wonderful new community arts and cultural centre, the Synergy Centre, for our AGM. Here we joined The Big Lemon’s shareholders and members of the community of over 150 bondholders to look at our progress of the last year, and our plans for this year.

After a presentation and questions over last year’s progress and our plans for this year we got down to the formal business of the AGM, which was to decide how to allocate the company’s surpluses, and vote fresh talent onto our Board of Directors.

We have been blessed with two incredibly talented people with very relevant skills, Mitali Mookerjee and Martin Ashby, who were both elected to the Board and will make a huge difference.  We were also lucky enough to have an offer of help from a local graphic designer, Mark Griffin, who will help us make our business look the business.

Finally, we discussed how we allocate our surpluses.  There was a proposal from the Board that 80% of our profits will be re-invested, 10% will be paid in a dividend to our shareholders – the first dividend we’ve ever paid – and 10% to our staff as a thank you for all the hard work. Happily, everyone agreed unanimously to the proposal and a motion to have equal staff and shareholder ‘pots’ moving forward was also unanimously supported.

We won’t be millionaires next year but we have lots of exciting plans, our shareholders are benefitting from a dividend for the first time, and our staff have a pot of gold to do something amazing with.  Happy with that 🙂

We asked, you responded.  Over a hundred of you!  

In January we launched a fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 for an electric bus to operate on our routes in Brighton & Hove using electricity from renewable sources. Just a few weeks later we have smashed our target and thanks to local residents we are now over halfway towards our second bus!

The money has been raised by selling two-year bonds of £100 each to members of the local community at an interest rate of 6% per annum.  The response from the public has been incredible and with the best savings rates at only 2% it is no wonder they’re selling like hot cakes.

“We are all incredibly excited with the prospect of running zero-emissions electric buses in Brighton & Hove and humbled by the level of support we have received from the public.  Last year was our best year yet and this year is already shaping up to be even better.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us with our fundraising efforts the thought of running two electric buses in the city is very exciting indeed.  We call on members of the public who might be interested to get in touch and help us improve air quality in Brighton & Hove.”

Tom Druitt, Managing Director, The Big Lemon CIC

 

Ten days into our fundraising campaign The Big Lemon is halfway to its target of £100,000 for our first electric bus – what will be the first fully electric bus in Brighton & Hove.

As reported in the Brighton & Hove Independent last week, and on Latest TV just yesterday, The Big Lemon is in the middle of a campaign to raise money to buy electric buses to help address air quality in Brighton & Hove and trial new technology to enable us to develop even greener, cleaner bus services.

 

 

This will be a huge investment for us, as each electric bus costs approximately twice as much as the equivalent diesel vehicle:

What do we need to get our first electric bus?	Cost
Electric bus	£233,803
‘Slow’ charger for overnight charging	£2,440
‘Fast’ charger for topping up the charge	£23,111
Total	£259,354

The response from the public has been incredible, with over £50,000 pledged in just ten days!  This is half of what we need for our first electric bus, and together with some of our own money and a government grant, we are hoping to be able to raise what we need by the end of February, so we can have the bus on the road in September:

Where is the money coming from?	Target
Bond issue	£100,000
Government grant for the bus	£108,865
Government grant for the charging infrastructure	£19,163
Company funds	£31,326
Total	£259,354

Tom Druitt, Managing Director, said

“I’d like to thank everyone for their support – it’s been overwhelming. It’s really happening now, and to raise that much money in such a short time shows us that people are keen to see this technology in Brighton & Hove.  We have £50,000 left to raise, so I’d like to ask everyone to spread the word, check behind your sofas and take advantage of what is a fantastic investment opportunity”

Andrew Boag, from Brighton Area Buswatch said

“Brighton Area Buswatch welcomes this bid which will make a significant contribution to improving air quality in the city”

Since our launch in 2007 over a million passenger journeys have been made on The Big Lemon and we have used over half a million litres of waste cooking oil and saved 900 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the process.

In 2016 our aim is to take it to the next level and run bus services on electricity from renewable sources. No emissions, no carbon footprint.

Why isn’t everyone doing this already?!

Sadly the main reason is it simply costs too much to buy the buses – as the technology is still young it costs roughly twice as much for an electric bus as it would for a diesel bus.

In today’s money that’s roughly a quarter of a million pounds.

How going electric will help our city and our environment

Brighton & Hove City Council’s 2015 Air Quality Action Plan priorities improvements in roadside NOx levels and welcomes initiatives to reduce NOx emissions from buses.

The Big Lemon’s routes include North Street (B2066) which is one of the busiest routes in the UK with nearly all (97%) of the cities bus routes passing along this road. North Street to Western Road has the highest concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in Sussex and currently exceeds the legal limits for nitrogen dioxide emissions.

The reduction of emissions from buses along this route is a priority in tackling air pollution in the city. Although The Big Lemon uses sustainably sourced fuel from waste cooking oils, our current fleet of biodiesel buses produce relatively high levels of NOx. Replacing these buses with electric vehicles would reduce the NOx emissions (as well as particulate matter, CO2 and everything else!) to zero.

Just look at the emissions we could save from converting from biodiesel to electric:

Per Bus	Carbon monoxide (CO)	Hydrocarbons (HC)	Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)	Particulates (PM)
Annual emissions (biodiesel)	836 kg	314 kg	1,419 kg	81 kg
Annual emissions (electric)	0	0	0	0
Saving over 10 years	8,360 kg	3,140 kg	14,190 kg	810 kg

Will you help us make Brighton & Hove a healthier city?

We’ve applied for a government grant to help us raise the money to buy three of these buses, but in order to get our first one we need to raise £100,000 ourselves.  We have therefore released 1000 community bonds at £100 each to enable us to reach that target.

Our offer to you:

We are offering 1000 two-year fixed rate £100 community bonds at an interest rate of 6% per annum.  In plain English that means that if you invest £100 today, in two years’ time we’ll give you £112.36 – guaranteed.

Better than the Banks

Currently Moneysupermarket’s featured ‘market-leading’ savings product is a two-year fixed rate cash ISA which earns 2% AER.  Invest with us and your money money will be working three times as hard for you, as well as working hard for the local community too!

Risks

No investment is 100% secure, and even the biggest banks can fail.  Having said that, bonds are one of the safest investments, because they are not tied to performance, so as long as the business doesn’t go out of business (and we’ve no intention of doing that!) you get the agreed return on your investment.

The Big Lemon has been growing steadily over the last few years, consistently improving its performance and resilience year on year. The following table shows the last four years’ financial performance, with each year better than the one before, and last year being our best yet!

	2012	2013	2014	2015 (Draft)
Total Income	£391,340	£530,195	£616,873	£654,564
Cost of Sales	£295,996	£442,984	£453,506	£481,937
Gross Profit	£95,344	£87,211	£163,367	£172,627
Overheads	£90,690	£80,513	£104,561	£101,656
Profit	£4,654	£6,698	£58,806	£70,971

Summary

The Big Lemon is offering a fantastic investment opportunity, with much better rates than savings accounts and ISAs, a lot less hassle than property, and much less risk than the stock market.  With our community bonds you get the best of all worlds: a great rate, incredibly low risk, and no hassle at all.

Investment per bond	£100
Period	2 Years
Return on investment	6% pa
Total amount returned to you after two years (per bond)	£112.36
Closing date for applications	29 February 2016

Any Questions?

If you have any questions please put them in the comments box below and we will answer them, then both question and answer will be visible to help others.

I’m in, what do I do now?

If you’d like to invest in The Big Lemon please complete the following:

Upon receipt of your form we will send you an invoice for your bonds with payment information.  We will reserve your bonds for seven days. Upon receipt of your funds we will issue a bond certificate within 14 days. 

The Big Lemon does not accept investments from companies, only from individuals.  We reserve the right to refuse investments and we do not need to give a reason. Maximum investment per person £40,000. The Big Lemon does not give financial advice and you are advised to seek independent financial advice on your investments. 

2015 has been an incredible year and so we’ve made a little video to share the best bits. Thank you for being part of our story and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

The Big Lemon will be running the 52 bus service throughout the Christmas Holiday period except on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Monday 28th December and New Year’s Day.

City College bus services and University of Brighton bus services are not running during the holiday period; both will start again on Monday 4th January 2016.

We would like to thank all our passengers and friends for your support this year and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Big Lemon is looking for full time and part time bus & coach drivers to start immediately.

The Big Lemon has a reputation for friendly personal service and we always look for the most cheerful friendly drivers to drive our buses!

We have a variety of positions available for full time and part-time work, both on local bus services and private coach hire. Drivers must be over 25 years of age with two years driving experience. A manual PCV licence is essential.

Salary: £11.10 per hour starting salary, rising to £11.50 after 3 months

Hours: 39 hour per week – overtime available

We have opportunities for immediate start – if you’re interested please download a Microsoft Word application form and email it to kelly@thebiglemon.com.

It’s here – a real mulit-operator ticketing system is now in use on Brighton & Hove’s buses with The Big Lemon, Compass Bus and Brighton & Hove Buses now sharing the same system. This enables passengers to use mobile tickets, ‘key cards’ and paper tickets interchangeably on all three companies’ buses.

Until now, smartcard tickets, known as The Key, used on Brighton & Hove Bus Company services, could not be accepted by other firms. It meant anyone who needed to make a journey involving more than one company had to buy tickets from different sources.

From 3rd August 2015 the new multi operator ticketing scheme has been available on service 52 run by The Big Lemon and on all Compass Buses operating on the Brighton & Hove network.
They can be bought online at http://www.buses.co.uk/thekey or at Brighton & Hove Buses’ North Street shop. M-Tickets bought and displayed on mobile phones via an app will also be accepted across the three companies. More information at http://www.buses.co.uk/app

The move has been made possible by a £71,000 grant the council won from the Department for Transport, plus resources from Brighton & Hove Buses and their parent company Go Ahead.

The project has funded computing changes to integrate the services, plus installation of card-readers on buses run by Compass Travel and The Big Lemon.

The companies provide supported bus services, subsidised by the council, which would otherwise not be commercially viable. The three-year pilot scheme will cover Compass Travel services 37, 37B, 47 56, 57, 16 and 66, plus service 52 operated by The Big Lemon.

As well as winning the grant and facilitating the project, the city council is also contributing £27,000 towards set-up costs, with bus companies meeting the running costs.

Smartcards can be topped up online or at Brighton & Hove Buses’ North Street shop, providing tickets ranging from single journeys to one-year seasons.

If successful the council’s multi-operator scheme could be extended to all operators of bus services in the city.

Chair of the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee Cllr Gill Mitchell said: “This makes cross-city bus travel much more practical. It could increase travel on routes which have to be subsidised and make them increasingly viable.

“This has been a very positive exercise, with the council assisting co-operation between our different bus companies for the benefit of the travelling public.”

Nick Hill, Head of Commercial Development, Brighton & Hove Buses, said: “We are delighted to have been able to help make this project a reality as it makes it even more attractive for people to use the bus in the city. It will make bus travel easier and cheaper for thousands of people using the council-supported routes in the city by giving them the same access to a smart card as everyone else in the city. This scheme is an example of great partnership work within Brighton and Hove.”

Chris Chatfield Managing Director, Compass Travel (Sussex) Limited said: “Compass Bus is pleased to be fully involved in this joint initiative for smart bus ticketing in Brighton. This will make local bus travel cheaper and easier and give seamless journey opportunities on one ticket.”

Neil Morgan, Director of Operations at The Big Lemon said: “This is something The Big Lemon has been very keen on for a long time as it will make passengers lives much simpler and easier, and also enable more passengers to benefit from cheaper fares. It’s been wonderful working together with other bus operators and the city council to make this happen and we look forward to the day when all bus operators in the city are included.”

Supported services mainly run to outlying areas east of the city as far as Saltdean and to Hangleton, Knoll and Portslade in the west. They cover routes or times that are socially important but not commercially viable.

The Big Lemon is an award-winning bus and coach operator based in Brighton. We operate two local public bus services using vehicles which we run on biodiesel from recycled cooking oil. Our current fleet is as follows, although this is subject to change:

• Three Volvo B10M 49/53 seat coaches
• Three Dennis Mini Pointer Darts, 29 seats
• Three Mercedes Midibuses, 25-29 seats
• One VW LT46 minibus 16 seats

This position is a full-time post of 37.5 hours per week working principally between the hours of 0730-1530 Monday to Friday although some flexibility will be required to meet the operational needs of the company.

Reporting to the Director of Operations, the post holder shall be responsible for the maintenance of The Big Lemon’s fleet of vehicles. The post has no line management responsibilities initially but this may change as the workshop expands. The post holder will need to work unsupervised and be able to meet operational deadlines. The post holder will need to be flexible, quick-thinking and able to adapt to fast-changing operational circumstances whilst maintaining the highest quality of work. Immediate start.

Remuneration:

£12 – £15 per hour depending on level of experience/whether you have your own tools.

28 days paid holiday per annum.

The company will also be offering a workplace pension in the near future in accordance with current legislation.

Person Specification

Essential

As a minimum 1 years apprenticeship experience and hold either a City and Guilds or NVQ level 2 or 3 accreditation. Exceptions can be time served experienced engineers with verifiable references.

A full manual PCV licence attained not less than two years ago

Good communication skills

The ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines while maintaining a high standard of work and a friendly disposition

The ability to work well in a team environment and work with management and drivers to provide the highest levels of service to our customers

To be available out of hours for emergencies

Non-essential but desirable

• Own tools
• To be familiar with Microsoft Office programs and web browsers.
• Driver CPC certificate

Responsibilities & Tasks

1. Presentation for MOT & other statutory testing: to prepare and present all vehicles for annual MOT tests and any other statutory tests as required.
2. Preventative maintenance : to carry out routine inspections on all vehicles according to stipulated inspection frequencies and carry out fault diagnostics and repairs as necessary
3. Running repairs: to carry out repairs to vehicles as and when required to ensure roadworthiness of the fleet at all times and enable vehicles to be off the road for the absolute minimum amount of time.
4. Stocks & Spares: to maintain stocks of workshop consumables as required and order spare parts as necessary in accordance with company policies and procedures.
5. Breakdowns: to operate a rapid response service to all fleet vehicles in the event of a breakdown and arrange replacement and recovery of defective vehicles as required.
6. Driving: to be available for bus driving at short notice at any time within your hours of work in the event of sickness or absence of other members of staff.
7. Records: to keep full records in accordance with the company’s policies, procedures and statutory obligations and ensure these are available for inspection by company managers or VOSA inspectors at any time
8. Workshop: to keep the workshop clean and tidy and maintain it as a safe working environment
9. Health & Safety: to maintain awareness of relevant health & safety legislation, undertake risk assessment as necessary and ensure compliance with all relevant policies, procedures and legislation.
10. Training: to attend all relevant mandatory training including external courses required for the job role
11. To undertake all other reasonable tasks as directed by company managers.

There will be on-going training and personal development opportunities for the right candidate.

Applying for the role:

If you are interested in this position please email your CV with a covering letter for the attention of Neil Morgan, Director of Operations, to neilmorgan@thebiglemon.com.

Please outline clearly how closely you meet each aspect of the person specification, and identify relevant experience in all aspects of the job description.

If you’d like to discuss this role further please call 01273 681681 and ask for Neil Morgan or Tom Druitt.

Public Meetings in Woodingdean and Ovingdean

Please come to one of our public meetings to look at how we can improve service 52 and what other opportuinities there might be to improve public transport in Woodingdean and Ovingdean. We have had a number of meetings already and they have helped us respond to the needs of the community. As a result of working in partnership with the commmunity we have been able to revise the service to greater satisfy people’s needs, extend the route back into Brighton and get agreement from other bus operators to accept each other’s tickets.

Founder of The Big Lemon, Tom Druitt, said “We’ve really enjoyed running the 52 bus for the people of Ovingdean and Woodingdean and it has been a real pleasure to meet with them on a number of occasions to get feedback on the service and share ideas for how it can be improved. I’m looking forward to meeting residents again to see what we can do to make services better in those villages”.

Public Meetings

Woodingdean: Downs Hotel, Monday 16 February 2015, 6.30pm

Ovingdean: St Wulfran’s Church, Tuesday 17 February 2015, 6.30pm

Meetings will most likely last about an hour. All welcome!

Following routine research and training at a classified location in the Sussex Downs, military officers have uncovered an unrecognised nerve agent that seems so far unresponsive to know antidotes. What happens following exposure is highly disturbing and cannot be revealed for security reasons. Our unit is a specialist division researching the ongoing and future development of chemicals designed to combat lethal nerve agents – we urgently need your help in order to prevent serious OUTBREAK.

The Big Lemon will be on hand to transport the brave volunteers to the special area of operations in an effort to combat the deadly nerve agent. Do you have what it takes to join the battle? Click here to join up!

We are proud to support OXJAM Brighton Takeover Festival held on Saturday 18 October. Oxjam began in 2006, with the aim of creating a network of music-loving people across the UK, all united by a shared goal – to raise money to fight poverty and suffering around the world. 9 years on we’re still going strong with more than 45,000 musicians having played to audiences of more than 1.2 million people at over 4,500 Oxjam events, raising in excess of £2.3 million.

OXJAM Official Poster

Have a look at the preview to the festival 🙂

All this week we are collecting for OXJAM on the buses, so dig deep and help us together provide a better world!

Two events will serve to highlight the vibrant social enterprise scene in Brighton & Hove this week: a Social Enterprise Network Event at Wagner Hall on Friday 12th and “Social Saturday” on the 13 September.

Social Enterprise Network Event, Friday 12th September:

9.30am – 1pm, 12th September 2014 at Wagner Hall, Regency Road, Brighton, BN1 2RT

This event will be about the journey of a social enterprise with workshops and networking opportunities for anyone interested in this area.

• Caroline Lucas and the School of Social Entrepreneurs will be delivering keynote speeches.
• Practical workshops delivered by The Big Lemon, Engage and Create, Buzzbank, the School for Social Entrepreneurs, hisBe, Brighton & Hove City Council, Community Wood Recycling and more.
• Information on the developing Brighton and Hove Social Enterprise Strategy and an opportunity to have your say
• Exhibitors from the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Buzzbank and Big Society Capital – giving you the chance to talk face-to-face with some of the most influential social enterprise bodies in the UK.

This is a rare opportunity to learn from some of the most important people in the social enterprise sector here in Brighton & Hove. Book your free place now at http://tinyurl.com/bhselaunch14
Please support us on social media, our twitter handle is @BHSEN2014.

Click here to download the program for the day.

Further information can be found at http://www.bhsen.co.uk/brighton-hove-social-enterprise-network-event-12th-september-9-30-1pm/

“Social Saturday”, 13th September:

The UK’s first Social Saturday will take place on 13th September 2014. Social Saturday will raise awareness of social enterprise and encourage consumers to unleash their spending power and buy from social enterprises.

Brighton & Hove will be celebrating Social Saturday in Jubilee Square, Jubilee Street, outside Jubilee Library from 10am to 5pm. The Big Lemon will be there – come and talk to us about what makes a business a social enterprise and what we are doing to make the world a better place!