More buses in Bath and North East Somerset are under threat of being axed if the council does not increase its transport funding, a local public transport campaigner has warned.

Bus routes which are vital for communities while not being profitable for bus companies to run are financially supported by local authorities. In the West of England, councils such as Bath and North East Somerset pay a “transport levy” to the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), about a third of which is used to pay for these routes.

Addressing Bath and North East Somerset Council’s climate scrutiny panel on January 22, public transport campaigner David Redgewell warned that bus services were at risk unless the council increased the levy it paid.

He said: “The levy has been frozen which means as the cost of providing bus services has gone up from staff, resources, drivers, cleaning, and maintenance, the levy stands still. If the levy doesn’t get raised, then the bus services running out there that you’ve got supported in Bath.”

He added that WECA CEO Stephen Peacock had been asking for “urgent discussions” with council leaders to ensure the levy was increased. Mr Redgewell told the scrutiny panel: “It’s not just from Bath and North East Somerset. Its also from Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire. Its not moved with the level of inflation for providing bus services in four years, yet the cost of paying for bus services, paying drivers, cleaning, tendering, has become more.”

Last year, the levy was frozen. Papers which went before the WECA committee in January 2024 said the freeze could be absorbed by taking £1.1m out of the “smoothing reserve” for transport costs. But it warned there would need to be a 13 per cent increase in the levy in the 2025/26 financial year, with further rises of 7 per cent and 4 per cent in the years after.

This year’s transport levy will be voted on at the WECA committee meeting on Friday January 31. Papers going before the committee state that Bath and North East Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council will both pay a 5 per cent increase to their transport levy, while Bristol City Council will pay a 3 per cent increase. The paper said this could be a “balanced position” if money was taken out of reserves.

In 2023, buses across rural North East Somerset were cut after the levy was not increased in line with inflation, triggering a bitter row between Bath and North East Somerset Council and Metro Mayor Dan Norris.

At a WECA committee meeting in June of that year, Mr Norris called Bath and North East Somerset Council’s actions “a disingenuous, mean-spirited, deceptive, devious thing to do.” Sarah Warren, who was representing Bath and North East Somerset Council at the meeting accused him of “misrepresentation.”

Mr Redgewell has urged the council to discuss raising the levy. He told the scrutiny panel: “If you want, you can play a political football and say its all the mayor’s fault but it won’t wash and it will cause damage to this council and to WECA.”