Bus funding bid disappointment

Cheshire West and Chester Council is very disappointed to hear that their £37m bid to the Department for Transport for funding to improve bus services has been unsuccessful.

In October 2021 the Council submitted an ambitious Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the borough aimed at encouraging more people to travel by bus.

Councillor Karen Shore, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways & Strategic Transport said: “I am shocked that not only did Councils have to compete against each other, but most of us haven’t received any support to make crucial improvements to our bus services.

“This is very disappointing news, for our communities. Our bid to improve public transport across the borough was very ambitious and we will be asking the Department for Transport for feedback on our application.

“Good bus services help areas to reduce congestion in towns and stop rural communities being cut off.  They’re vital in tackling social exclusion and loneliness and can help cut air pollution and reduce carbon emissions.

“As part of the bidding process we have developed a new Enhanced Partnership between the Council and bus operators across the borough that is being submitted to the Department for Transport later this month.

“The Department for Transport has confirmed they will be providing additional funding for a dedicated bus Enhanced Partnership Officer for the next three years. They also told us further BSIP funding may become available in the coming months, and we wouldn’t be required to provide a new application for this.

“Despite the disappointment we are still progressing our exciting plans to introduce an on demand rural bus service following a grant of £1.075m from the Rural Mobility Fund for a three-year trial of an innovative public transport service for our residents living in rural and suburban areas.”

The Council are now working with all the bus companies operating commercial services in Cheshire West and Chester on an improvement plan that will encourage people to use them more often.

An Enhanced Partnership has two parts: a plan with a clear vision of the improvements to bus services that the Partnership is aiming to deliver plus an Enhanced Partnership scheme, setting out the precise detail of how the BSIP vision and objectives will be achieved.

The Enhanced Partnership scheme objectives were reliant on the £37m to provide more frequent, faster and reliable services across the borough, lowering fares to make bus travel more affordable and a simpler fares structure to help people get the best value ticket for the journey(s) they are making.

The National Bus Strategy for England was launched in March 2021. The strategy asked Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) to develop a Bus Service Improvement Plan by 31 October 2021. The Strategy also asked LTAs to work with bus operators to develop an Enhanced Partnership by March 2022 (later revised to draft Enhanced Partnership by end of April 2022). The Council’s Cabinet endorsed the Enhanced Partnership (EP) and Plan and Scheme in March 2022 ready for submission to the Department for Transport.

Only 31 areas successfully gained support for their Bus Service Improvement Plans.

One of the twelve priority areas for the Council’s Inclusive Economy Plan is to ‘Improve transport access to job opportunities with increased public and active travel links, increasing connectivity to break down key barriers faced by communities.’