South Yorkshire MPs clash over bus funding bid in Westminster debate

Rother Valley’s Alexander Stafford and Mr Jarvis engaged in the back and forth during the session in Westminster Hall on Wednesday.

It comes just weeks after South Yorkshire had a bid for more than £400m for transport turned down by the central government.

At the time, Mr Jarvis said the area had been “shafted”, but Mr Stafford accused him of putting together a bid that “was not good enough to make the cut”.

Mr Stafford told MPs that he wanted South Yorkshire to have a network like Transport for London in the capital or Transport for Greater Manchester in the North West .

He told Westminster Hall: “Transport for South Yorkshire will transform bus travel. The creation of this body provides the opportunity for huge investment in our buses, with the benefits overseen by local residents rather than private company shareholders pocketing large revenues with little investment in return—as we currently see.

“Transport for South Yorkshire will ensure the integration of the bus network across the county, and will feed into the Bus Back Better national bus strategy.”

Mr Jarvis said that he has been “deeply frustrated” during his time as mayor that he could not “do more” to improve services.

“Amid all the talk of devolution, the Government’s default model is still forcing local government to endlessly compete for disparate, uncertain, centrally controlled and inadequate pots of money, sapping resources and hamstringing any attempts at strategic planning. South Yorkshire shows that especially well,” he said.

However, Mr Stafford then accused Mr Jarvis of being unrealistic with the proposals that South Yorkshire had submitted for the national funding pot.

He asked him to acknowledge “that there was just over £1 billion available from the Government for the whole country, yet South Yorkshire put in a bid for £400 million? That is almost half the money for the entire country. Surely that shows unrealistic expectations from South Yorkshire.

“Surely we should be more realistic,” he added.

Mr Jarvis then told the Conservative MP to “do his homework” and that the authority had initially been advised that the pot of money would be closer to £3bn than the £1bn eventually handed out.

Responding in the debate, Transport Minister Andrew Stephenson said: “The Government are clear that our mission is to level up and deliver world class local transport networks and we want to work with local communities across the country to do so.

“My department is working closely with partners in South Yorkshire to deliver that vital objective in the region.

“I can confirm that Government will seek to bring forward appropriate legislation in due course to allow for the creation of a single public transport authority for South Yorkshire to help to realise that vision.”