Major new funding announced for Leicestershire bus services

County Hall has been awarded £1.78M from first-year Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP Plus) funding as part of Department for Transport (DfT) settlements to more than 60 local transport authorities in England.

In the wake of the new funding, the county council say it is pausing its intended review of services, including key routes serving the town and rural areas of Melton Mowbray.

The announcement has been welcomed by Councillor Ozzy O’Shea, cabinet member for highways and transport, as an opportunity to ‘help us better shape the public transport offer in our rural areas.’

And while the council assesses how the funding allocation will be distributed, Councillor O’Shea is encouraging people to get back on the buses and take advantage of a current £2 fare cap extended by the government as part of the announcement.

He said: “While this is only ‘in year’, short-term funding, it does offer a great opportunity to create more-sustainable services and provide a more attractive offer for communities.

“It’s also very encouraging that the government is committed to returning the bus sector to a more sustainable financial footing and the extension of the £2 fare cap until the end of October this year, and £2.50 beyond that, and into 2024, is another positive announcement

“Given the fare cap and the value for money offered, I can only encourage people to get out and about and use local services and that will help to revive the market.”

Councillor O’Shea confirmed that the council will be pausing the passenger transport policy and strategy review of the services which the authority currently subsidises, although more than 90 per cent of the bus network is run by the commercial sector.

County Hall said in February it could not afford to continue to subsidise all the bus services it has been doing because of a huge funding deficit.

Those local services which had been included in the review included the 14 (Melton town - Queensway - Tamar Road) and the 15 (Melton town - Dieppe Way), the 8 to and from Loughborough, the 55 and 55 services to and from Grantham, the 100 Melton-Syston route, the 23 to Bottesford, the 25 to Stathern and the X6 (Bingham - Grantham via Muston).

However, the council has also made it clear that the funding boost does not mean it will re-instate bus services which have been withdrawn over the past few months.

He added: “It is vital that bus services offer value-for-money and, in using this additional money from government, we need to ensure it is directed to offer greater connectivity for our communities, rather than continuing to subsidise low-value services.”

The DfT will announce BSIP Plus funding for supporting bus services through 2024/25 later in the year.

The government has allocated a total of £160M to support the future of public transport across the country, particularly in the most rural areas of the county.

The new funding comes on top of the recent ‘levelling up’ funds of £6.5million announced for a ‘demand response transport’ service for Melton and Rutland to carry villagers where bus services have been axed or cut back.