Issue details

2.1. The Executive Director of Transport approves the award of the contracts as set out below with a total contract award value of £178,281.35 covering 30 weeks from Sunday 01 September 2024 until Saturday 29 March 2025. This is broken down as:

2.1.1. An additional payment of £295.95 per week on the current S35A/23001/0 contract to Cawthornes Travel Ltd for additional mileage added to the contract on service 35a (serving Chapeltown) from 01 September 2024. Total of £8,878.50 for 30 weeks.

2.1.2. A direct award (deminimis) payment of £1,185.54 per week to South Pennine CIC for additional journeys (Mon-Fri) and all-day Saturday for service 33 (Barnsley-Kingstone) following the removal of Stagecoach commercial service 43/44 from October 2023. Total of £35,566.31 for 30 weeks.
Contract reference – B033/24XDM/1

2.1.3. A direct award (deminimis) payment of £193.27 per week to South Pennine CIC for additional journeys on a Saturday for service 26 (Penistone Town service) following the removal of Stagecoach commercial service 21 from October 2023. Total of £5,798.08 for 30 weeks.
Contract reference – B026/24XDM/1

2.1.4. A direct award (deminimis) payment of £3,533.33 per week to Stagecoach Yorkshire to maintain peak journeys (Monday to Saturday) on service 83 (Ecclesfield-City-Fulwood) and service 86 (Chapeltown-City-Lowedges) following notification of commercial removal from September 2024. Total of £106,000.00 for 30 weeks. Also noting that services are wholly at risk from April 2025 and a review of commercial performance is required ahead of this time.
Contract reference – S083/24XDM/0

2.1.5. A direct award (deminimis) payment of £734.62 per week to Stagecoach Yorkshire to reinstate an hourly 57/57a (serving Worrall) in an evening (Monday to Saturday) following reduced service levels introduced by SYMCA from October 2023. Total of £22,038.46 for 30 weeks.
Contract reference – S57A/24XDM/0

2.2.The Executive Director of Transport approves the amendment of contract R608/23003/1 to provide service 655 (Woodhouse-Aston) in a morning only following commercial changes implemented by First South Yorkshire. The price per day from September 2024 will reduce from £309.54 per school day to £235.00 per school day. This represents a 2024/25 budget saving of £9,317.50. Annualised savings for the life of the contract will be £14,162.60.

2.3.The Executive Director of Transport notes the risk to the tendered services budget and reputational risk for SYMCA for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years due to the information provided in 3.3 to 3.9.


3.1See the 18 September 2023 Public Transport Team paper, MCA paper (agenda item 15) and meeting minutes for further background information. This paper assumes the background and approvals in these papers are known and are not repeated.https://governance.southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=137&MId=1647&Ver=4

3.2 Verbal update on service specific changes will be provided if required.

3.3 The MCA Board on the 31 July 2023 approved the committed funding for statutory and non-statutory school services until April and July 2025. However, the funding via the levy and covered by the service level agreement for school services has a cap of c.£1.7m per annum. Current school service costs are £4.68m per annum and are currently unbudgeted from August for the 2025/26 year and beyond.

3.4 Use of currently available DfT BSIP funding is supporting the bus network so that £21.5m per annum can be spent on local bus services, including school services, in 2024/25. With a base budget of £12m per annum any loss of DfT funding could require significant cuts to the tendered bus network if other funding sources cannot be found.

3.5 A number of contracts currently in place end on 29 March 2025. Should we get confirmation from DfT of funding for services in 2025/26 then we have a gap to fill in 2024/25 (2 days to the end of the financial year). This would be at a cost of £33,273.26. These costs are required and should be protected for when we award extensions into 2025/26 (subject to funding).

3.6 In addition to the budgetary pressures covered above details were released on 30 March 2023 on the need for bus services, including the majority of the home to school services in South Yorkshire, to provide audio-visual announcements: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-onboard-announcements-to-make-britains-buses-accessible-for-everyone#

3.7 PSV Regs are here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/715/contents/made

3.8 Local commercial bus services, including home to school services in South Yorkshire, will have to comply with these changes at various stages depending on the age of the vehicle in use. Due to a number of smaller operators unlikely to have the capital and cashflow available to achieve this, funding has been made available by central government https://rtig.org.uk/aig

3.9 SYMCA officers will continue to engage with local operators to understand the risks of further commercial cuts due to this new legislation.