Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Brian Jones, Lead Member for Waste, Transport and the Environment (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet agreement to sign up to the Bus Emergency Scheme 2 to secure financial support for the bus sector and establish a relationship with Flintshire County Council as the lead regional authority.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       agrees to the principles of the Bus Emergency Scheme 2 agreement (as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report) to secure (conditional) financial support for the bus sector and to establish a relationship with Flintshire County Council as the regional lead authority and signatory that ensures that the ongoing emergency funding meets the authority’s priorities and is delivered on its behalf, and

(b)       in due course, to call for a further report on bus reform proposals relating to the future management of bus services in Wales.

Councillor Brian Jones, Lead Member for Waste, Transport and the Environment presented the report seeking Cabinet approval to sign up to the Bus Emergency Scheme (BES) 2 to secure financial support for the bus sector and establish a relationship with Flintshire County Council as the lead regional authority.

The report detailed the wider context and background to the Bus Emergency Scheme including Welsh Government proposals for the future reform of bus services together with details of the (conditional) financial assistance already provided to the bus sector, most recently administered by Flintshire County Council as regional lead authority for North Wales but distributed after regional agreement.  BES 2 represented the next phase within that process with Welsh Government proposing an agreement with operators and local authorities to protect bus services for an initial term up to 31 July 2022 unless market conditions recovered sufficiently that support was no longer required.  Benefits of the agreement would potentially be safeguarding services towards pre-Covid levels and providing a sound legal basis for the additional funding, and offered local authorities some influence over what were formerly commercial services.  It also provided extra capacity for school transport.  Risks included bus operators not signing up but most were close to doing so, and if Denbighshire did not sign up the authority was less likely to be in a position to influence bus service levels and would effectively be out of step with other local authorities in the region.

The following issues were raised during the ensuing debate –

·         in response to questions from Councillor Mark Young the Passenger Transport Manager confirmed that work was currently ongoing with Transport for Wales to ensure democratic accountability going forward and the Lead Member would also be working to ensure Denbighshire’s needs were met and scrutinised.  It was agreed that members be kept informed of future governance arrangements once they had been established.  In terms of the provision of bus services and ensuring passengers felt safe whilst travelling some statistics were provided on passenger levels which demonstrated that travellers were now more confident using bus services, with approximately 10-12% passenger levels during the first lockdown period compared to 23% in the current lockdown.  Reference was also made to the rigorous cleaning regimes to ensure public safety whilst travelling and the introduction of pre-booking seats on some services which gave an added level of confidence.  However it was recognised that it would take time to return to some sort of normality and pre-Covid passenger levels

·         the importance of bus services in rural areas was highlighted which were difficult to sustain and Councillor Brian Jones confirmed that high level discussions were currently ongoing specifically around rural needs and there was also support in that regard from other lead members at regional level.  The Leader thanked Councillor Jones for those assurances and was pleased to note that the impact on rural areas was high on the agenda and that a regional approach may provide an opportunity for a more innovative solution to meet rural needs.  He supported the regional approach given it would provide a more sustainable service and ensure better dialogue with operators on a sub-regional approach

·         the reluctance of some operators to sign up to the agreement was explained given that there was a prescribed profit margin set at 2% which operators felt precluded future investment and concerns that local authorities and Transport for Wales would be able to influence the services operated.  Discussions were ongoing that week with operators and Transport for Wales but given the significance of the scheme it was expected that matters would be concluded and all would be in a position to sign the agreement

·         the possible reluctance of people to return to use public transport post-Covid was also acknowledged which would likely be influenced by how long the pandemic continued and changing patterns such as online shopping and less commuting which could become entrenched.  However the scheme was flexible and recognised that passenger numbers could increase dramatically or be subject to steady growth.  From July there had been growth to about 60% of pre-Covid capacity in some areas and it would take time to reach 100% but if pre-Covid levels were not reached there would inevitably be questions about the balance between public support and commercial revenue to be discussed

·         there was some debate on the impact of future investment in buses in terms of environmental technologies such as hydrogen or electric vehicles, particularly given the 2% cap on profits in the agreement and the Welsh Government’s aim that all buses had zero tail pipe emissions by 2028.  It was considered that even if passenger numbers reverted to normal levels it would be difficult to replace the existing fleet in line with that aim and there was an ongoing debate in that regard – it was likely that additional funding would be required

·         in terms of relevant legislation since the UK left the EU, the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services referred to draft State Aid Revocations Amendments EU Exit Regulations 2020 due to come into force the beginning of the year and confirmed that legal advice thereon could be provided outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       agrees to the principles of the Bus Emergency Scheme 2 agreement (as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report) to secure (conditional) financial support for the bus sector and to establish a relationship with Flintshire County Council as the regional lead authority and signatory that ensures that the ongoing emergency funding meets the authority’s priorities and is delivered on its behalf, and

(b)       in due course, to call for a further report on bus reform proposals relating to the future management of bus services in Wales.