Concern over future of Vale of Glamorgan bus services

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s operational manager for transport, Kyle Phillips, said the Welsh Government’s bus network grant has been vital in keeping bus services across Vale of Glamorgan alive.

However speaking at a council environment scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, April 16, he said he doesn’t know whether that funding will be there beyond March 2025.

One retiree who spoke at the meeting said changes to a route where he lives in Rhoose makes him feel as though his bus pass has been taken away from him.

Stephen Cooper, 72, can’t drive for medical reasons and regularly caught the 304 Adventure Travel service from Fonmon Road.

However that leg of the route was removed when bus operators like Adventure Travel announced major changes to services due to funding issues.

Mr Cooper said: “This is a large village… approximately 800 people, around 12% of the population of Rhoose, live in the Fonmon Road area.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council announced in February that it will use Welsh Government funding and £470,000 from its budget to preserve a number of bus services.

In its announcement the council said First Cymru would be responsible for running the 304 service. However the Fonmon Road leg is still left out.

Mr Cooper said: “You gave me a bus pass at 60 and then, when I needed it, it was taken away from me… the service was taken away.”

He also used the service to get to the hospital in Cardiff and travel to the city for leisure. He added: “It was convenient.

“It ticked so many boxes and I was very disturbed to see the service removed.”

Mr Phillips said the 304 service, as it was when Adventure Travel ran it, was run in the daytime as a commercial service.

He said: “Therefore it wasn’t a contracted service for the council. They were running it as a private operation.

“They took that leg of the journey off because they were having particular timing issues and they were trying to find the best operation so they could get into Cardiff and out of Cardiff without having timing penalties.

“When we agreed that we would tender the service we agreed that we would tender them as they were commercially which is why we didn’t add that leg back on.

“Having said that we are talking to First Cymru about bits that have been lost and what we can do to add that back on so that is going on in the background at the moment.”

The Vale's transport operator is struggling to see where funding to keep routes going is coming from (Image: Newsquest)

The bus emergency scheme was brought in to help bus operators during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However even after the pandemic there were calls for continued support for operators as bus patronage failed to return to what it was pre-Covid.

The bus emergency scheme, which became the bus transition fund, was extended to March 31, 2024.

The latest bus network grant made £39m available and £2m has gone towards supporting services in Vale of Glamorgan.

Mr Phillips highlighted the significance of the funding saying that  without it there would be “nothing between Llantwit and Barry, nothing between Llantwit and Cowbridge, and nothing between Cowbridge and Ystradowen and further afield”.

He said the funding made available by the Welsh Government was welcomed but added: “We don’t know where we are going past March 2025 at the moment because we haven’t been given any indication of what is on the cards.”

When asked by scrutiny committee chair Cllr Susan Lloyd-Selby when the council will know whether or not that funding will be made available again next year Mr Phillips added: “We have regular meetings now as a South East Wales bus working group.

“We have regular meetings now… we are meeting monthly. We may ramp them up.

“That group… has Welsh Government on it as well so we are in constant dialogue.

“I can’t give you an answer at the moment because I just don’t know.

“We are in regular dialogue so as soon as we know I can let others know.”