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24
Sept
‘At what cost?’ Mayor Skaith faces questions over bus franchising in North Yorkshire
David Skaith, the Labour Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has defended his bid to implement bus franchising amid cost concerns.
Mr Skaith, who claims bus services in the region are currently “broken”, is overseeing the development of a rural franchising model for the network.
Bus franchising is when a local authority or public transport authority awards exclusive contracts to a private operator to operate bus services in a specific area or on specific routes.
Other Labour mayors, such as Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have embraced the model.
Cllr Michael Harrison.
However, Cllr Michael Harrison, Conservative councillor for Killinghall, Hampsthwaite & Saltergate division on North Yorkshire Council, questioned the cost of the policy at a Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee today (September 24).
Cllr Harrison said the mayor’s description of bus services in North Yorkshire as “broken” was “too simplistic”.
He added that a service in his area was currently being subsided at a cost of £250,000 a year and had been cut down to a two-hourly service to save money.
Cllr Harrison said:
Improving rural bus services is a worthy cause, but my concern is at what cost and who will pay? Because £250,000 a year for one bus, if you extrapolate that out into rural North Yorkshire, that’s a big bill.
The Conservative councillor pointed out that the first phase of franchising in West Yorkshire cost £21 million to carry out an assessment of services.
Cllr Harrison asked Mr Skaith how he was in a position to move forward to an assessment in North Yorkshire without a certainty on the cost and whether he would levy North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council to pay for the franchising model.
A number 2 bus in Harrogate.
The Labour mayor defended the move towards franchising and said private operators were already being heavily subsidised.
He said:
Ultimately, I see moving away from a private operator model as the key. We are subsidising so much money and where is that going? It is going to private operators. As long as the service is not making them any money, they will cut it.
At the end of the day, a bus service is more than just making a profit. It is about moving people around sustainably for healthcare, education, college and for the enjoyment of life, frankly. As long as private operators understand that they will run services that only make any money, frankly if we had that system fully implemented we would hardly have any services anywhere across the region.
Mr Skaith added that a franchise model would give “greater ownership” over timetables, pricing, routes and where the money for services goes.
He said that an assessment phase for the franchising model is estimated to be £3 million.
Mr Skaith said:
It also means that in this first phase we can actually start to open up the books of these operators to see what routes they are delivering, what kind of usage and what kind of expenditure we have. Currently, we do not know. It is all guess work.
The mayor is consulting on a Local Transport Plan that aims to provide a long-term framework for transport improvements.
People can have their say on the Local Transport Plan consultation here before November 4.
You can read our explainer article on how bus franchising could work in North Yorkshire here.
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