Agenda and minutes

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19th November, 2025.

Agreed: That the minutes of the meeting held on 19th November, 2025, be approved as a correct record of proceedings.

There were no matters arising.

Question 1 – From Councillor Thorp

Why can a bus not be diverted off Bawtry Rd when heading to Rotherham, turn left down Worrygoose Lane, turn right down Cow Rakes Lane then along High Street, turn right onto Pleasley Road, back up to Moorgate crossroads and back onto its route and the opposite on its return. This has been a bus route before so still has its bus stops in position.  This route headed through the heart of Whiston which has a population of approximately 5,000 people but buses only skirted the outer roads of Whiston. Since its withdrawal, the people who lived in the centre of Whiston who needed or wanted to use public transport, must walk to the extremities of Whiston to catch one or, most likely since it was hilly, take a car.

Brian Edwards, SYMCA, stated that the request highlighted an important point about connectivity for residents living within the village and SYMCA acknowledged the wider concerns about access to public transport for communities situated away from established main road routes.

At present, there were no immediate operational plans to revise existing services to run through Whiston. Service 21 continued to operate through the main village, although this did not run via Cow Rakes Lane as the route was no longer a circular so needed to run in both directions, or potentially be split with a 2 hourly service via Cow Rakes Lane and a 2 hourly service via Greystones Road.

Where feasible within current operational and financial constraints, SYMCA would continue to explore options that could improve transport provision for Whiston residents. It was also important to highlight the forthcoming shift to a franchised bus system in South Yorkshire from September 2027. Under franchising, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority would have greater ability to design routes based on social value and community need, rather than the commercial priorities that currently shaped the network. This transition presented a significant opportunity to review localised connectivity issues, such as those affecting Whiston, in a more integrated and strategic manner.

Councillor  Thorp clarified that he was asking for one of the buses to come off Bawtry Road to access Whiston but rejoin at Whiston crossroads, onwards to the hospital.

Brian stated that he would take the request back to the team and arrange a meeting with Councillor Thorp to discuss it further.

Agreed:-  (1)  That SYMCA and Councillor Thorp meet to discuss the possibility of a bus re-route around Whiston.

Question 2 – From Councillor Thorp

The bus service into the estate off Herringthorpe Valley Road, service No. 114,  ran for 12.5 hours with a total of 13 services per day.  However, the problem was that this was a very steep route out of the estate; would it be possible to run buses after 18.00 from Rotherham so people did not have to use their own transport  and no Sunday service at all.

Brian Edwards reported that SYMCA recognised the importance of improving public transport accessibility when services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

Paul Topham, Interim Service Manager, Community Safety and Street Scene, to present

 In accordance with Minute No. 44(3) of the meeting held on 19^th November, 2025, Paul Topham, Interim Transport Services Manager, attended the meeting and gave a verbal update on the current situation with regard to SEND transport provision.

Send Transport Provision

It was a local authority’s statutory duty to provide travel assistance/transport where a child met the eligibility criteria.  There was a Council Policy detailing the criteria available on the Council’s website.

Budget

Each year there was an 8-10% increase in the demand for transport with applications received for children/pupils who were entitled to receive statutory travel assistance.  So far in 2025/26 there had been 600 SEND applications had been received compared to 900 5 years ago.

1,400 children were transported per day over 314 routes consisting of inhouse minibus operation (approximately 23), external operators who provided a solution with minibus or taxi and then an offer, as an alternative, of either a personal travel budget or a personal travel claim.  The   budget was paid up front to parents/carers for them to organise their own transport whether it be themselves/family friend/relative etc. or a personal travel claim which was paid retrospectively for mileage incurred based on the HMRC rate of 45p per mile.

Those 2 elements were based on 85% attendance rate at school.  Payments were recovered or reduced payments if the attendance level fell below 85%.

The budget never really met what was required in terms of expenditure which had been recognised corporately due to the demonstrable evidence that the requirements to provide transport would never reduce and would continue to increase. 

Independent Travel Training Scheme

The Service was trying to promote and develop further Independent Travel Training and provide those pupils who were assessed as being able to undertake travel independently.  Training was provided, health and safety, risks, shadowing and all agreed with parents.  In the 3 years that the scheme had been running, 50 young people were now trained independent travellers.  It was planned to double that figure in the next 2 years.

For each child travel trained, it potentially saved the Council in terms of an actual seat on a vehicle, approximately £7,400.

There were a number of initiatives to promote greater independence for families including a personal transport budget or a personal travel claim.

A number of issues were raised by Members including:-

-         Encouraging parents to consider other options other than the provided minibus.  As stated above, personal transport budgets and travel claims were offered but it was not mandatory or statutory and could only be offered to parents/carers as an option

-           

-         The Transport Escalations and Exemptions Panel weekly challenged solo occupancy of taxis but it was often based on a young person’s individual complex needs.  Out-of-Borough transport was also a significantly high proportion of the Service’s costs and the challenge was whether or not there was provision within the Borough or closer to the Borough instead of travelling significant distances.  The Service was constantly challenging those aspects of service delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

Brian Edwards, Assistant Director Bus Services SYMCA, gave the following update:-

Bus Services

Approximately 20% of the network was funded through SYMCA.  A process to extend all contracts, or have all contracts in place at least through until at least the first tranche of franchising in September 2027, was almost complete.  The next stage would be to consider stage 2 and 3 through to the completion of franchising estimated to be at the end of 2029.

With the budget available, services that operated under contract were in the process of being secured.  It had been a challenge as a key part of the funding was from the Government’s Bus Grant and, due to the introduction of a new measure to base grant allocations on, SYMCA had not been as successful as the previous year.  Work was now taking place to ensure that all the services would be secured until at least September 2027. 

Franchise

The first move into the market would be in March with the full tendering process for the first tranche (Sheffield and Doncaster) in June 2026, quickly moving onto Rotherham for the next tranche

Work was taking place with operators to ensure that stability was ensured whilst the franchising process was worked through.  This was against a backdrop of challenging situations in terms of cost to the industry and passenger numbers. 

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) Pilot

The pilot was out to the market at the moment with the aim to bring it into the Rotherham district and a separate scheme to Doncaster by early summer 2026.   It was an option and there was a finite amount of money so it would be a challenge to continue in the long term but it would provide a lot of information and lessons learnt in terms of how DRT could play a part in the wider bus network particularly in areas where less populated and quiet times of the day where it was difficult for any operator to operate efficiently.

Councillor Bennett-Sylvester queried the first tranche of franchising and whether it would impact routes that crossed border such as the X33? 

Brian Edwards replied that the focus was mainly on services that currently operated out of the Olive Grove Sheffield Depot and the Doncaster Depot.  He would ascertain if there was a definitive list of which services operated from which depot and whether that could be shared. 

Agreed:-  (1)  That an update on the Demand Responsive Transport pilot be provided to the next meeting.

(2) That SYMCA provide information on the potential Dearne Valley/expanded Goldthorpe railway stations.

(3)  That, if possible, SYMCA share information of which services operated from  the Olive Grove Sheffield Depot and Doncaster Depot. 

(1)       First Group

(2)       Stagecoach

(3)       Rotherham Community Transport

First Bus

Michael Moore reported that the routes First currently operated were not showing any huge challenges in terms of operation at the current time.  There had been some problems in relation to trees last year which had caused issues in terms of the capacity that could be provided on vehicles.  The aim was to run buses that were safe for the highways and where there were trees that overhung that could strike the vehicles, they did cause a safety risk to passengers. 

First continued to see a challenge of buses running to/through/via Meadowhall and was mitigated as best it could.  Since the closure of the Midland Road garage, some of the services had been split e.g. X2 and X11 with half of them running from Sheffield and the other from Doncaster.  From Sunday 22^nd February all the X2 service would run from the Sheffield garage giving more co-ordination of the service.  It also had the added benefits of giving more opportunities to look to employing a wider rota from Rotherham  people and encourage colleagues to drive buses in the Borough.  There would be a pool of buses that worked in and out of Rotherham.

Councillor Currie, on behalf of Councillor Garnett,  asked if there was any chance of the No. 139 bus being reinstated on Ox Close Avenue.  The church and shops on St. John’s Green were extremely popular but the removal of the bus service had made a real difference and was alienating people from the good work being carried out in the community.

Michael Moore replied that he could not speak as to why that change had been made but it would be remiss to reinstate the service if it was not part of the franchise. 

Agreed:-  That SYMCA discuss further with Councillors Currie and Garnett and Rotherham Community Transport.

Stagecoach

John Young reported that period 10 had finished the previous week and had seen a dip in punctuality performance to 82.54% for the last 4 weeks.  There had been a number of challenges particularly towards the end of January; there had been temporary traffic lights on Rawmarsh Hill which had caused significant delays, roadworks on Balby Road, Doncaster, which had impacted the No. 221,  Ardsley Hill, Barnsley, and the traffic lights on Bank Street, Mexborough.

Stagecoach’s punctuality for the 20 week period average was 86.88% which was a more respectable figure so overall was in fairly strong place.  Reliability for period 10 was still very good at 99.76%; only 0.24% of journeys did not run but the journeys that did run were more likely to run late because of the issues aforementioned.

The network was stable and there were no service changes planned in the short to medium term.  Stagecoach was in discussion with SYMCA to ensure a smooth process from now until the franchising started and there were some challenges which had already been touched upon at the meeting.  Adult patronage was down significantly; it was not a Rotherham specific issue although it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

Northern Rail

Richard Isaacs gave the following performance update for the most recent period:-

On time                   62.3% - above target

Time to 3                 82.7% - slightly above target

Time to 15               98.6% - slightly above target

Cancellations           2.1% - slightly above target

The restructure had now been completed and the performance for South and East Yorkshire was:

On time                   60.9% slightly below target

Time to 3                 81.3% slightly below target

Time to 15               98.4% above target

Cancellations           1.9% above target

There had been some issues with a fire in Standish Tunnel which came across the Pennines resulting in a knock on effect throughout Yorkshire in terms of serviceability but generally performance was moving in the right direction. 

There was a major session for tracks maintenance on 22^nd February between Sheffield, Retford and Lincoln.  A bus replacement service would operate on the Sunday.

The Yorkshire Flyer had been launched with Mayor Brabbin (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) at Leeds Station.  This cut the journey time to 47 minutes to Leeds and Sheffield with one stop at Wakefield.  This added an extra 30,000 seats a week to the service.

Northern Rail was saying goodbye to Alan Hope, the Station Manager for South Yorkshire, who was retiring.  He had looked after stations for 40 years.

In the wider rail industry, London North-Western Railway and West Midlands Railway had joined DFTO (DfT Operator Ltd) so as the move towards to Great British Railway progressed, there were more and more operators moving back into DFTO.

On 14^th February there were to be major engineering works at Manchester Picadilly which would affect services down the Hope Valley into South Yorkshire. 

Northern Rail had worked closed with the Combined Authority in Leeds with regard to youth engagement and getting young people enthused about the improvements to Leeds Station.  The outcome had been fed through to the Talking Transport events which Mayor Brabin had been holding across the region.

Similarly in North Yorkshire, there was to be an event on 13^th February with young people at York Station to look at the major improvements taking place to increase capacity from 10M to 20M over the next few years.

Last month was International Faith Day so work had taken place within the industry regarding faith in the workplace and working with the faith leaders in Leeds.  There had been an opportunity for the managers to visit the temple, synagogue and mosque to learn about the different faiths.

The Chair stated that, at the last Council meeting, a motion had been passed calling for train services to be reinstalled at Swinton Interchange and Rotherham Central to pre-covid levels.

Richard reported that, in terms of the fast service, it was direct to Sheffield and did not go via Swinton.  He would take the question away and report to the next meeting.

Councillor Harper also pointed out that there was a large number of trains that only had 2 carriages and was always full.  Why could there not be a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Nat Porter, Interim Head of Transportation Infrastructure, gave the following verbal update on the work of the Transport Infrastructure Service:-

2026/27

The main line of work currently was pulling together programmes for the coming financial year.  A report proposing the recommended Transport Capital Programme 2026/27 would be submitted to Cabinet in March.  Shortly before that the Officer Delegated Decision in respect of the prioritisation of crossings programme would go to Directors for approval by the end of February.

The Service was in the very early stages of liaising with SYMCA in assisting in pulling together the Transport for City Regions Programme 2027-32.

Major Schemes 

The City Region Sustainable Transport Schemes were presently currently forecast to be subject to public consultation during March.  There had been some delays due to working through some budget pressures and had been subject to the valuation engineering process to ensure the schemes were affordable and delivered best value.

Smaller Schemes

Work was continuing on the Minor Works Programme and, subject to Council budget setting, the future programme would be developed. 

Not all Wards had been visited as yet but liaison would take place with the Neighbourhood Teams to organise them.  For those Wards that had had the briefing, work was now underway where forms and processes were being finalised for submission for Ward-funded works for the next financial year onwards.

It was noted that the recruitment process for the permanent Head of Services was reaching its conclusion so it was likely to be Nat’s last meeting in this role.

The Chair thanked Nat for his work and contributions to the meeting and the support and guidance he had provided to him personally as Cabinet Member.

There was no other business for consideration.