Issue - meetings

Chris Hegarty from the Public Transport Unit attended the meeting to provide Members with an update on the Bus Service Improvement Plan and associated Enhanced Partnership.

In July 2021 Mr Hegarty had attended a meeting of the Committee to inform Members of the National Bus Strategy and to provide an update on the development of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) that was being produced in response to the strategy. The BSIP was submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) at the end of October 2021.

There was initially very little feedback from the DfT on the contents of the Council’s submitted BSIP, however, in February 2022, Derbyshire was mentioned in the Government’s “Levelling Up” White Paper as an area which would receive funding to improve bus services. It had become clear that the DfT was scaling back the funding being made available nationally for BSIPs. This was due to the DfT having to allocate some of the proposed funding in the Bus Strategy to continue to provide emergency financial support to bus companies over a longer period of time than originally envisaged.

In April 2022, DfT made an announcement setting out the funding that would be available nationally to LTAs for BSIPs for the next three financial years, up until March 2025 (this was a shortening of the original timescales from five years). Of the 70 LTAs who had submitted BSIPs, only 31 had received indicative allocations with neighbouring authorities’ areas, such as Cheshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire, receiving nothing. Derbyshire had been given an initial allocation of £47m which was the second largest amount awarded to a non-urban LTA.

In August 2022, the DfT had provided a detailed breakdown of the measures it would fund which were presented for Members’ information and confirmed the funding settlement as £47,003,438. It was anticipated that the first annual tranche of this money would be released to the Council in the near future.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee notes:

a)    The work undertaken on the Bus Service Improvement Plan and Enhanced Partnership Plan and Enhanced Partnership Scheme; and

b)    The funding which had been allocated to the Council as part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan.