Bus services at risk due to Welsh Government funding cuts
Liam Randall, local democracy reporter
A local authority fears some bus services are at risk of being cut due to a reduction in Welsh Government funding and rising costs.
Financial support provided by the government to ensure bus companies could continue to operate during the Covid pandemic came to an end earlier this year.
It was replaced instead by grants for local authorities to tender for non-commercial services, with North Wales councils collectively receiving £5.6m.
However, Flintshire Council has revealed some services in the county could still be scaled back despite a better financial outlook than was originally expected.
Contract costs
It comes after a senior official said in a report that an increase in contract costs and a shortfall in grant funding had led to a £317,000 budget pressure.
Katie Wilby, Flintshire’s chief officer for streetscene and transportation, said: “The purpose of this report is to update members on revenue pressures associated with the local bus discretionary budget for 2025/2026 financial year, whilst also informing of an in-year shortfall in Bus Network Grant (BNG) funding, along with options to mitigate these pressures.
“The report highlights available options to address the £270,000 shortfall for local bus, as well as a further £47,000 to address the regional shortfall of BNG.
“Whilst previously, it had been anticipated that there were likely to be significant changes to the commercial bus network in Wales from April 2024 as a result of inadequate funding, only minor service changes are now required.
“The region has an allocation of £5.6m for this financial year to procure commercially non-viable services, however, there is currently a regional shortfall of £187,000.
“As such, Flintshire are required to make savings of £47,000 this financial year to cover their proportion of the shortfall.”
Budget pressure
In relation to the local bus budget, she added: “In March 2024, the integrated transport unit re-procured local bus services which saw an increase in costs and a subsequent in-year budget pressure of £270,000.
“The effects of the Covid pandemic and the limited competition within the bus industry has resulted in a sharp rise in contract prices nationally.”
Several options are being considered to address the shortfall in BNG funding, including the reduction of the X4 Mold to Chester Business Park service to run just one bus on the route.
This would deliver an estimated saving of £72,000 over the remaining five months of the financial year.
Other possibilities include terminating the X4 at Broughton Retail Park, or removing Sunday services on the F10 Connah’s Quay to Chester and F11 Rhyl to Chester routes.
The main option being examined to claw back the £270,000 shortfall in the local bus budget is to terminate the number 5 service running from Mold to Ellesmere Port at Deeside Industrial Park.
Ms Wilby said: “This service was re-procured in March 2024 and the contract cost has risen to £360,000 per annum (£9,000 per month increase). The cost is high value for the number of passengers utilising the service.
“Whilst it would only be possible to determine accurate savings via a re-tendering exercise, it is thought that savings would be sufficient to mitigate the annual pressure.”
The report is due to be discussed by members of the council’s environment and economy scrutiny, with councillors being asked to support the cuts.
The local authority will be required to give notice to the Traffic
Commission before the changes can take effect.
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There are funds readily available for certain things like the recent announcement of a tram-like railroad for Cardiff and then no or very limited funds available for other transport services. It does not make sense.
The new government in Westminster keeps reiterating that there’ll be ‘no return to austerity’. But the reality often seems that austerity’s not gone away and that there’s no present prospect that it’s set to do so.
Not one penny has ever been claimed by an MS’s both past and present for a “Bus Journey”
Says it all really.
https://allowances.assembly.wales/
Of course they haven’t, they’re too busy swanning around in their ministerial cars or taking Uber’s from one end of the country to the other at our expense. Busses are only for us plebs.
The underlying issue here is that the Welsh Government cannot borrow for large infrastructure projects, so any ongoing yearly costs from e.g. the South Wales Metro project are eating into their budgets. As far as I know this can be done at a UK or even at a Scottish level, so it baffles me why the Welsh Government has this arbitrary restriction on having a balanced budget placed on it, as it’s definitely affecting their ability to do other critical infrastructure projects such as improving public transport along the North Wales Coast and in Swansea Bay.
I take it that when you say South Wales Metro you are referring to what should be called the Cardiff Metro.
Some days they bark on about getting the public out of their cars and onto public transport. Other days they announce further reductions to public transport services. Is this all part of some nutty plan to confine us all to our comfortable walking radius ? Ministers, politicians and elites excluded, of course.