South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard challenged on his election manifesto

South Yorkshire’s mayor has been quizzed about his election manifesto and promises, including the test and trial of free travel on public transport for young people in the county.

Members of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s (SYMCA) overview and scrutiny committee were able to ask Oliver Coppard about his plans as the re-elected mayor, now that the general election is out of the way.

placeholder image — South Yorkshire’s mayor has been quizzed about his election manifesto and promises, including the test and trial of free travel on public transport for young people in the county.

Cllr Joshua Bacon from Rotherham asked Mr Coppard about the test and trial free travel of public transport for young people. He was looking for an answer on whether the age cap had been set yet and when the trial could begin.

He was told that Mr Coppard put “young people” in the manifesto because he did not want to commit to under-18s or 16-18s or 11-18s – as there was an argument for all of them “but they come with a different price tag”.

Mr Coppard said part of the decision-making was to discuss it with the bus companies.

He also told members that it was “regrettable” that one of the bus companies had just raised child fares.

Mr Coppard said he wanted to help young people to choose public transport. However, he did not have an immediate timetable for the trial.

Cllr Lauran Moynahan from Sheffield also asked a question about buses.

She asked the mayor if “he will remove discrimination against older people”.

She said currently an older person’s bus pass ends at 11pm so people going to events in the city centre were having to get taxis.

Mr Coppard told Cllr Moynahan that as part of the franchising process he wanted to look at it but couldn’t make any promises as they were not at that place in the negotiations.

Councillor Jane Kidd from Doncaster raised a question regarding Mr Coppard’s pledge to develop an ambitious cancer strategy for South Yorkshire and asked how he would actually influence the decision-making so people can access cancer care “given that the very first step of getting a GP appointment is so difficult for people”.

Mr Coppard said he had had briefings with cancer charities and experience within his family so he knows the challenge people face.

He added he could influence through the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), of which he is the chair with a formal responsibility, and argued that there were a “bunch of opportunities there” they could be looking at.

Mr Coppard said one of the main reasons he had put this in his manifesto was that the cancer statistics in South Yorkshire were “shocking”.

He added that the situation in South Yorkshire was almost worse than anywhere else in the country.

“It’s essentially a postcode lottery that we’re losing,” he said.

Cllr Hannah Kitching from Barnsley asked Mr Coppard whether there was going to be a work plan introduced for the pledges in the manifesto so essentially “what’s coming up fast, what’s more long-term”.

She was told that a team was working on it and when the full picture was clear it would be coming back to the committee “hopefully in the autumn”.