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02
Apr
Mayor David Skaith hits back at council criticism over bus plan
The Labour mayor has responded to criticism of his efforts to manage bus services in York and North Yorkshire.
David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has hit back at Tory-controlled North Yorkshire Council for its criticism of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s management of bus services across the county.
Mr Skaith said it was “quite a low bar” for bosses at North Yorkshire Council to tell him to “step up to the mark” on bus service delivery, as the council agreed on Tuesday to “manage the buses as previously” while also deferring a decision to accept the mayor’s devolved powers relating to the provision of bus services until March 2027.
At a meeting at County Hall in Northallerton, the leader of North Yorkshire Council, Cllr Carl Les, said: “We had hoped that by this time this year we would not be in the position to continue with the delegation because it is very much the mayor’s initiative and he’s been very public about wanting to control bus operations in North Yorkshire.”
However, speaking on Wednesday, Mr Skaith told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:
I think that’s quite a low bar from North Yorkshire to say that when we see over the last 10 years, that 50 per cent of bus mileage has been lost in North Yorkshire due to inaction from North Yorkshire Council and not funding the buses properly.
I’ve come into a situation where bus services and delivery in North Yorkshire have been poor. I don’t think anyone would say that bus services work well in North Yorkshire, so we’re starting from a very low place, and we’re having to fix a lot of problems that have been born out of the last 10 or 15 years of underfunding of buses in North Yorkshire.
A council report has set out “the requirement to continue to delegate some of the mayor’s transport powers back to North Yorkshire Council
and City of York Council in order to discharge the mayor’s duties in relation to bus service provision in the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority area”.
It recommended that the mayor’s devolved powers relating to the provision of bus services are delegated to NYC and CYC from April 2026 until March 2027.
Conservative councillor Simon Myers, North Yorkshire Council executive member for culture and housing, said: “It’s about time the mayor stepped up to the mark.
“But, for the good of our residents, it’s the right thing that we continue this delegation, and he needs to look at how he intends to fund these services that he was ambitious to take on when he was elected mayor.”
Alison Hume, the Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, said she did not agree with that characterisation of Mr Skaith who she said “is stepping up with bus services”.
She said:
The responsibility for running the bus services has been given to North Yorkshire Council for another year while the combined authority hires all of the people that it needs to hire.
But what David has inherited is a broken bus service and we are going to build it back.
It does depend on national funding and there are conversations around that. We’ve seen improvements in Scarborough through Bus Service Improvement Plans funding to many of the routes, and I’m determined to keep those improvements in place.
Asked what his plan was for buses next year, Mr Skaith said the combined authority was “working on the first franchising pilot, which will be coming back in about October, November this time”.
He said:
That’s going to really lay out the blueprint for how we can best fund and support bus services across York and North Yorkshire.
When we have that linking in with our improved rail connectivity as well, it’ll paint a really solid picture of how we can improve buses and how we can get the best investment that’s needed into the areas that require it the most.
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