Parents start school bus petition as South Yorkshire Mayor blasts funding “fiasco”

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard has released a statement as several bus services are due to be pulled, including school and college routes.

Pparents of students at Selby College have raised concerns following the announcement that the bus link between Doncaster and Selby will no longer exist.

Arriva services 405, 408, 409, 406 and 407 will all no longer run from 3 October.

FirstBus services 19, 41a, 51, 51a, 87b, 409 and 412 will also be withdrawn. Several other routes will see a reduced timetable.

Some of these services have new partial replacements which can be found here: https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-GB/LandingPage/service-changes#Doncaster%20service%20changes

In 2020, the government announced the Covid-19 Bus Services Support Grant, which allowed for services to continue running despite lockdown setbacks.

It was announced in August this year, two months before the support was due to end, that it would be extended to March 2023. However, by this stage many services had already decided on cutbacks.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Mr Coppard called on the government to provide a long-term bus plan in a statement.

He said: “The Government’s stop-start bus funding fiasco is directly responsible for this slashing of bus services by operators. It is a disaster for our community in South Yorkshire and we have been warning about this for months.

“With bus operators just walking away from some contracts – including commercial school bus services and key community routes – I have stepped in and used South Yorkshire’s financial reserves to try and plug the gap. But despite this, in some instances, the bus companies still won’t run the routes.

“That’s why I’ll continue to fight for the funding and the powers to fix this broken bus system.”

Parents of children at Selby College have started a petition to reinstate the 405 service from Doncaster to Selby following the announcement it will be axed.

One parent, Danielle Hobson, said: “This will not only affect my son’s education options but so many other people’s lives.”

“An elderly lady catches it daily, getting her out and about.

“A working woman who will lose her job with no other means to get there, just to mention a couple.”

The petition has over 700 signatures so far and you can sign it HERE

When contacted about its service changes, an Arriva spokesperson said: “We know how important the bus network is to communities across Doncaster district. That’s why when another operator withdrew from Skellow and Burghwallis, we’ve stepped in at short notice to ensure these areas still have access to have a bus service.

“Unfortunately, regarding the link to Selby, a combination of reduced passenger numbers since the pandemic and higher operational costs means that this specific link is no longer economically viable and has been run at a loss for some time despite government recovery funding.

““After a detailed review carried out in partnership with colleagues at North Yorkshire County Council, we have taken the tough decision to withdraw this service within North Yorkshire only. Within South Yorkshire, the route continues as service 51 maintaining connectivity between Norton, Askern, Bentley and Doncaster.”

The 51 now acts as a replacement for five axed services in Doncaster.