Agenda item

A report was presented which recommended the SYMCA to take the decision to formally assess bus franchising as an option for the whole of South Yorkshire to deliver the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and therefore issue, in accordance with S.123C of the Transport Act 2000, the notice of intention to prepare an assessment of a proposed franchising scheme and subsequently commence the assessment.

On 29 October 2021, the SYMCA had submitted an ambitious BSIP to the Government.  At the SYMCA meeting held on 15 November 2021, the Board had approved issuing of a notice to operators on the proposal to make an Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme, and to enter into a period of statutory consultation with operators of qualifying local bus services, followed by a period of public consultation.

Mayor Jarvis MBE considered that without funding, an enhanced partnership may not deliver the required transformation in bus service provision.  He highlighted the need to deliver on the BSIP to ensure that buses would continue into the future.  He was conscious that franchising on its own would not replace the need for greater resources for buses, and he fully appreciated the concerns raised by a number of Members.  There was a good case that needed testing that greater public control would be helpful and critical to the required transformation, and he was strongly supportive of the report presented.  He expressed his thanks to the officers for work undertaken in preparation of the report.

Councillor Read welcomed and supported the report.  He referred to the three structural challenges that were faced by the bus network in relation to a lack of regulation, to which he welcomed the opportunity for the franchising option to be assessed to understand if it delivered efficiencies, maintained standards and would correct market failures.  Cllr Read recognised the revenue funding challenge of the day-to-day cost of running the bus services, which had been made increasingly difficult over the last 12 years with the reduction in local authority budgets, and the longer term challenge around transport investment.  He considered that a franchising system was the same as publicly owned public transport.  He acknowledged the huge amount of work to be undertaken.

Councillor Fox also welcomed and supported the report, noting the risk related to the expectation of what would be delivered for the region.  Public transport was crucial within the vision and plan of Sheffield City Council to become net zero by 2030.

Councillor Sir Houghton CBE supported the recommendations highlighted within the report.  He referred to the observations made over the last 20 year period together with the de-regulation of public transport, which had been unsuccessful.  Within South Yorkshire, problems had been encountered with the services prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic had increased those problems which had resulted in a significant reduction in patronage across the region.  He considered that the SYMCA was correct to build and maintain constructive relationships with the operators, however he did not consider that franchising would present a solution to all of the problems within the region.  He considered that the proposals highlighted within the report would not achieve a quick fix solution to the problems, but agreed that the option needed assessing.

Members were referred to the unfortunate comparisons that were made of South Yorkshire to London.  The public transport system in London was funded per head at a level seven times greater than in South Yorkshire.  South Yorkshire was also compared with Greater Manchester, to which their devolution deal contained an element for public transport which supported the cost of franchising and its implications, together with a mayoral tax which was imposed upon its residents.  Councillor Sir Houghton CBE referred to the references that had previously been made to taking profits from the operators, to which he would be willing to consider as part of a public service, noting however that he believed Stagecoach’s profit in 2021 had been in the region of £28m across 17 domains, which would not cover the problems faced within South Yorkshire alone.  He considered that franchising was a method to increase SYMCA’s control over what would happen, but that it would not enable a return to publicly owned public transport, which would be very difficult to achieve without further support from the Government.

In terms of supporting the recommendations, from a BMBC perspective, Councillor Sir Houghton CBE made the following points:

i)        In the event that it was considered that the bus franchising was too expensive and/or that it was unable to be funded by the SYMCA, that there needed to be an opportunity for the SYMCA to withdraw, and BMBC would withdraw at any stage of the process if that was the case.

ii)      That the four local authorities would be involved in shaping and calculating the assessment and required to sign off the assessment.

iii)     BMBC did not believe that bus franchising should be funded in part or wholly through the new taxes on the South Yorkshire residents.

iv)     That gainshare should not be utilised to support the on-going cost of franchising bus operations.  However, in the event that it had not been possible to find a solution to the immediate bus problem, that an alternative solution would be considered in the short term, and to make the case to the Government to support the bus franchising.

Mayor Jones CBE commented that she had the full support of DMBC to continue with the process of assessing the bus franchising scheme.  She added that the four caveats as outlined above by Councillor Sir Houghton CBE, applied equally to DMBC’s position. 

RESOLVED – That the Board:

i)         Approved issuing, in accordance with S.123C Transport Act 2000, a notice of intention to prepare an assessment of a proposed franchising scheme.

ii)       Approved the preparation of the assessment and associated costs of a proposed franchising scheme following issuing of the notice.