Plain text version:

“Today’s announcement that the 32 and 32a bus service is being completely cut is of grave concern to me and many of my constituents. This service is a lifeline for local people, connecting neighbourhoods across Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough to each other, district shopping centres, the city centre and crucially to the Northern General Hospital.

“I am deeply worried that we will see further services in Sheffield and Rotherham cut from October. These bus cuts are Tory levelling up in practice. We now have a broken transport system in which private companies can run services whenever and wherever they want, holding people in hard pressed and isolated communities to ransom.

“The Government have starved South Yorkshire of funding; our region did not receive a penny from ‘Bus Back Better’ fund. They promised people outside of London they would deliver ‘London standards’ across England, instead they are presiding over a vicious cycle of decline in public transport services.

“If the Government are serious about levelling up and providing good bus services outside of London, they must invest in South Yorkshire immediately. I will be working closely with Mayor Oliver Coppard to fight against these cuts.”