New petition launched in fight for more funding to prop up Rotherham bus services

From left: Labour councillors Amy Brookes, David Roche, Denise Lelliott, Dave Sheppard, Victoria Cusworth and Saghir Alam outside Rotherham bus station

A PETITION from Rotherham’s Labour group is calling on the government to extend emergency bus funding amid fears a third of services could be at risk.

The Covid relief cash runs out in October, which could even spell the end for commercially-run evening bus services all together across the borough.

Labour members are calling for the annual £40 million government funding to continue for another three years, as passenger numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.

A further £85 million would enable improvements to the network including to ticketing and travel time information, the party says.

Group and council leader Cllr Chris Read said: “Especially at a time when the government is in disarray, it’s really important that we send a message loud and clear from Rotherham, and the rest of South Yorkshire, that we are not just accepting that the Conservative government has given up on our bus services.

“People are quite rightly telling us that cuts on this scale will have a big impact on their lives, their ability to get to work and to see their families. The more support we’re able to demonstrate, the stronger and louder the case we can make.

“This would be a dead easy change for the government to make. All they need to do is to keep giving the emergency support they’ve made over the last two years through Covid.

“We’re really asking them to stick with the policy that they’ve had, and give our buses the change to recover passenger numbers.”

Visit www.rotherhamlabour.co.uk/buses to sign the petition.