South Yorkshire leaders accuse the government of letting the most vulnerable people down on buses

Despite a pledge to extend the current £2 bus fare cap until October 31 (with an increase of 50p between October 31 and November 2024), South Yorkshire’s mayors and council leaders slammed the government on underfunding the bus services in the county.

Oliver Coppard, the South Yorkshire Mayor, described the extension as “sticking plaster” a couple of weeks ago.

In a meeting, Mr Coppard doubled down and told the Mayoral Combined Authority Board on Monday that the cuts – which are the result of the level of funding into the bus services by the central government – were “a disgrace”.

Mr Coppard said: “Whilst I welcome on behalf of South Yorkshire any funding that comes into the region to support bus services and public transport more broadly, the level of cuts that we are now facing as a result of the funding that has now been decided by the government are a disgrace.

“Public transport is an absolute lifeline for all too many people who live across South Yorkshire, and there are thousands of people who rely on those bus services to get to work, see friends and family, get to medical appointments and have a decent standard of living.

“Without the bus services that we now face losing, I fear for the future of all too many people across our communities and how they will engage meaningfully.”

He added this has been a problem “for the best part” of the last 40 years – since the privatisation of the bus network.

Mr Coppard said: “South Yorkshire once had a world-class public transport system and that has been slowly and surely been taken apart as a result of privatisation.

“Frankly, without a significant investment of cash from this government, I really fear for the bus services in South Yorkshire and the future we currently face.”

Chris Read, the leader of Rotherham Council, said the longer-term issue has been coming for 40 years, and the short-term problem has been coming “for the last 18 months, two years”.

He added the problem originated from the government in Westminster.

Cllr Read said: “During which time the government has repeatedly let us down on funding, South Yorkshire in particular.

“We are left with impossible decisions to make about which services we can support – despite the fact that all the councils have put additional money again this year to support the services.

“The government did let us down and that impact will be felt later this year.”

Ros Jones, the Mayor of Doncaster, added that the amount of funding that South Yorkshire was given was “not only disappointing, it’s letting down our most vulnerable people”.

On May 17 this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the continuation of bus support funding, with £300m made available nationally from July 1 to March 31.

In addition, the DfT also announced an extension of the £2 fare cap on buses to October 31, with it then rising to £2.50 through to October 31, 2024.

A report stated that the DfT confirmed the SYMCA funding allocation for 2023/24 at £3.15m.

The report said: “This is a higher allocation than most of the other combined authority areas, but significantly less than we currently receive and insufficient given the scale of our spending pressures.”