CHANGES could be on the way next year for bus routes – with a stakeholder consultation likely to take place this autumn.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is being asked to enter into a new agreement with local bus route operators, or risk losing Government funding.

The new scheme, known as an Enhanced Partnership, to come into effect from April 2022 and is designed to improve services. The first details of changes should be available by the end of October.

Some BCP councillors say the scheme does not go far enough and the council should be considering franchising services as London and other big cities do.

They say it has been ridiculous for the two existing main operators to work in isolation, each pretending the other does not exist – making it harder for the public to work out who covers which routes, to buy tickets for both services, and where they should go to for information about all routes in the area.

Poole councillor Andy Hadley has called on the council not to rule out the possibility of eventually franchising services, which he claims would give the council more control over local routes and how they are operated, and at what cost.

Sustainable transport policy manager for the council John McVey told the council’s overview and scrutiny committee that local operators were still struggling to recover after Covid and were typically running at 60-70 per cent of the levels two years ago. He said that at one point the area had seen the biggest percentage increase in bus use anywhere in the country.

He said ideas being considered for the future included improvements to how passengers undertook the first and the last sections of their public transport journeys and better connections to outlying areas.

Cllr Vikki Slade said although the council had no option but to enter into an Enhanced Partnership with operators , she criticised the report due to go to Cabinet as lacking in ambition.

“We have had £277,000 so far for this and we have spent it on a couple of offices and some consultants – why did we not spend some of it on some proper consultation, why didn’t we consult residents about why they don’t use the buses?”

She said one idea which could be looked at was to offer really low ticket prices to young people which would get them into the habit of using buses and help tackle school run commuting.

“This just feels like such a missed opportunity,” she said.