Passing cost of bus franchising on to tax payers is “not appropriate” says Barnsley Council leader

Councillor Steve Hunt called on Oliver Coppard to “immediately take steps” to bring in a franchise model for buses across South Yorkshire during today’s (July 28) meeting of Barnsley Council.

“If bus franchising can work in Manchester it can work in South Yorkshire,” said coun Hunt.

“I’m calling on the new South Yorkshire mayor to immediately take steps to be in the franchising model for our buses, for the leader of this council to support this.

“Creating a bus service that is fit for purpose is crucial to help us tap to tackle climate change and help our economy recover.”

Councillor Sir Steve Houghton CBE, leader of the council, said that the patronage of bus services in South Yorkshire since COVID has reduced to below 70 per cent, leading to “ massive financial pressure on both the operators and indeed the wider services as well”.

“For the last 12-18 months, the government have covered that gap.

“The government have told us in terms of those revenues, that will end in October.

“If that were to come back to the council, that will be a substantial increase in council tax bills for Barnsley residents. That is not appropriate.

“All of my members want to see a publicly run transport system, not just buses but rail as well. But what we are not prepared to do is to put council tax bills up by fiver ,10,15, 20 per cent to pay for it.”

“The people of Barnsley….are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, what they don’t need is massive hikes in their bills from the council for an aspiration that’s probably not cheap.

“For every pound per person spent on public transport in Barnsley, five pounds gets spent in London. Therein lies the problem.

“What we shall do as a Combined Authority is consult over the next three months to see what public priorities are for bus services because there are some difficult decisions to be made.”