Martin Swales, chief executive of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, urges everyone to have their say on plans to bring bus services back under public control. He spoke to Local Democracy Reporter Julia Armstrong today (October 23) at Sheffield Transport Interchange
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00:00So, this is Martin Swales, who is Chief Executive of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
00:06Today is an important day for bus passengers, isn't it? Do you want to tell us what we're
00:10doing in the interchange in Sheffield today?
00:13Yes, thank you. Today we're launching the consultation about bus franchising. Franchising
00:20can be a complicated term. In essence, it is about whether to take control of the bus
00:29system and buses, take it into public control, or to leave it in private control. Public
00:38control would allow the Combined Authority, through the Mayor and the Board, the leaders
00:45of our councils, to make the decisions about routes, about fares, about services to communities.
00:57It would also mean that the MCA owned the buses, the depots, and could begin to plan
01:06a fully integrated system for the future.
01:10We are starting a 12-week consultation through to the 15th of January. The outcomes of that
01:18will feed into the Mayor's decision to Board in March about whether to proceed to franchising.
01:26We would really love your listeners, your readers, to participate in this. We're trying
01:34to make it as easy as we can. We have a short survey, we have a longer questionnaire, and
01:43we have all the technical detail if people want to read that and get involved in a comprehensive
01:49booklet. But really, we just want a little bit of everyone's time to hear their views
01:57so that can help inform the Mayor's decision.