Agenda item

6.1

The Committee received the following questions from members of the public, in attendance at the meeting.

6.2

Public Questioner 1

Referred to the transport issues on the Hallamshire routes. This was causing difficulty getting to and from Loxley and Wisewood. They asked if there was any information to share about the future of busses around the Hillsborough locality.

Councillor Gilligan Kubo informed the member of public that she was the Deputy Chair of the Transport and Regeneration Policy Committee. She explained that the Council did not run the bus service, it was run by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and were currently going through a process for companies to bid on running that service. It was added that funding by the bus service would come to an end in March 2023. Councillor Gilligan Kubo mentioned there was a meeting scheduled with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

6.3

Public Questioner 2

A member of the public commented that one of the reasons why she moved to the Hillsborough locality was due to good transport services. Although now it was not the same as it once was. She mentioned that people were buying bus passes that they would no longer be able to use.

Councillor Lindars-Hammond informed the member of public that he had met with the managing directors at FIRST bus service, and that there was no intention of them changing their minds on the cuts to the service. He stated that there needed to be cross-party working, with the communities, to try and convince people that there was demand for a good bus service in Wisewood.

6.4

Public Questioner 3

Commented on South Yorkshire Combined Authority not having the funding to run the bus service. She explained that the people voted for cheap buses in 1971. People did not need to use their cars as there was good transport services in the area. She believed that this would not change until there was a change in Government.

6.5

Public Questioner 4

Commented that local citizens needed to be prepared to pay more local taxes to get better transport services as these good services required more funding.

6.6

Public Questioner 5

Commented that there needed to be good working relationships with the public sector. She suggested that the Council looked at the impact bus services were having on people in the area.

6.7

Public Questioner 6

Commented that these profitable services were not providing an effective service for the people.

She referred to the food banks, which no one wanted to see happen, but ultimately in desperate times, it demonstrated how communities got together. She stated that the LAC could use its network of communication to share information to many citizens.

6.8

Public Questioner 7

Suggested the Council looked to hire buses from Sheffield Community Transport as they currently provided a service people that requested it. The Council could ask them what services they run and how they can help.

6.9

Public Questioner 8

Asked if there was anything this LAC could do regarding purchasing guest parking permits as the online process was challenging.

Councillor Argenzio agreed this needed to be better and would follow this up with Customer Services.

6.10

Councillor Hunt commented on the transport issues raised. He referred to the transport services in London stating they were reliable and had a system that met the needs of their residents. He added that the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority had a new Mayor, and that Sheffield City Council had the ability to feed into that and influence decision-making. It was mentioned that the Tram transport services were back in the public control as of 2024.

Councillor Johnson added that one major factor was that London had approximately four times more funding than South Yorkshire. He agreed that the transport services in South Yorkshire was not where it needed to be.