Key bus service between Sheffield and Rotherham saved by IKEA Sheffield superstore money

It comes as bus services are being slashed across the county.

The X1/X10 will be kept running over the next three years thanks to £395,000 that was part of a Section 106 agreement from IKEA when it built the giant Sheffield furniture store near Meadowhall five years ago. READ MORE: Liz Truss responds to Doncaster Sheffield Airport closure promising to ‘see what can be done’

The strategy and resources committee is due to approve this in a meeting on Wednesday.

Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, member of the committee, said other planning money from the development was used to modernise buses and bring them up to cleaner standards but there is now other funding for that.

He added: “There is lots of Section 106 money that should be spent that for whatever reason is sat in bank accounts and normally that is to do things like improve highways or parks. We haven’t been the greatest at spending it.

“We are staring down the barrel of a third of our bus services being cut so any services we can protect, we will.”

In a report prepared for the meeting, officers said: “These services would otherwise not be continued due to the limited budget for tendered services. It is therefore an improvement to services compared to what would happen and so is regarded as an upgrade to bus services for customers, as required by the agreement.”

They added: “Improved public transport can encourage additional and sustained patronage which in turn assists with the reduction in emissions from private cars and can have a positive impact on air quality.

“All these bus services enter the Clean Air Zone Charge Zone and so will be operated with Euro 6 compliant vehicles from April 2023.”

The meeting will take place from 2pm on Wednesday, October 12.

Links to meeting documents and the live webcast are available here: https://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=641&MId=8352