‘Sheffield doesn’t need bus timetables because they’ve been scrapped’: MP slams government for broken promises

Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, applied more pressure on the Government over buses this week, calling for a support grant to be extended to the whole of the next financial year to prevent more services being axed.

It comes as South Yorkshire faces cuts to a third of its bus services.

In the latest House of Commons debate on transport Mr Betts said: “The last Prime Minister but two, I think I’ve got the number right, promised we’d have London-style bus services in constituencies like mine. He said you’d be able to go out to a bus stop and you wouldn’t need a timetable because the buses would be that frequent.

“Secretary of State, you don’t need a timetable on many routes in Sheffield now because the buses have been scrapped altogether and the routes cut. So instead of a bus improvement plan we now have a disintegration of bus services.

“Will the Secretary of State confirm the Covid grant which has been extended to early next year will be extended to the whole of the next financial year? Because that is the only thing that is now keeping some bus services running in my constituency.

“Will he also arrange to have the meeting I asked for last transport questions with ministers for myself, local MPs and the mayor?”

The Government is providing £130 million of support to buses until March next year.

During the debate, Mark Harper, Secretary of State for Transport, told Mr Betts this time frame would be kept under review.

He said the number of people using buses had not returned to pre-Covid levels following the pandemic which had put services under “tremendous” financial pressure.

“I know how important buses are but there is a challenge from the impact of the pandemic on buses, on rail services and the important thing is to encourage people back to using buses – to grow revenue to make sure the sector is financially stable,” he added.