Cheshire East misses out on Bus Back Better funding

Cheshire East Council has missed out on securing government funding for improving local bus services in the borough.

31 local authorities were selected to receive the Bus Back Better funding, and, along with many other more rural areas, Cheshire East Council has expressed its disappointment at missing out on the additional support.

The borough’s Bus Service Improvement Plan set out proposals to transform public transform services across the are, and included plans to work closely with local communities, public transport users and local bus operators to secure services and deliver change. Cheshire East Council had sought to use Bus Back Better funding to deliver better quality, more reliable and more frequent buses, while simplifying ticketing when travelling by multiple buses or on other forms of public transport.

Cllr Craig Browne, chair of Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee, said:

“This is a deeply disappointing blow to the council’s ambition to transform the borough’s bus network. Sadly, for many of our residents this is now going to mean ‘Bus Back Worse’.

“We submitted an ambitious plan to improve the speed, reliability and quality of public transport, so that it would help encourage more residents to choose the bus, make fewer car journeys, reduce the demand for parking and improve our air quality. Unfortunately, our request has fallen on deaf ears. 

“The bus network in Cheshire East is facing a number of challenges due to a long-term structural decline in passengers – including a 24 per cent fall in passenger journeys since 2011 – compounded by recent loss of custom during the Covid-19 pandemic, staff shortages and exceptionally high costs inflation affecting fuel and wages.

“Without the investment needed to deliver our improvement plan, I fear we are likely to see a further decline in the availability of bus services in Cheshire East.” 

Cllr Laura Crane, chair of the members’ advisory panel on the BSIP, said:

“This is desperately disappointing news. Bus services face a real existential threat in whole areas of the country, not just in Cheshire East.

“Passengers need to be confident that they will get the reliable, safe and cost-effective transport that they expect. We need a bus service that works for our residents – one that is convenient and reliable, more user-friendly and greener, to ensure bus travel survives and begins again to thrive, rather than becoming a thing of the past. Government funding is vital for this.”

The current bus offer in Cheshire East is delivered across 54 bus routes and operated by nine bus companies. Of these 54 bus routes, 23 are either wholly or part subsidised by the council, which equates to approximately £2.1m a year.