BUS services in Gwent will benefit from a share of £11.5 million allocated to south east Wales through this year's Bus Service Support Grant.

The money is from a £25m all-Wales Welsh Government grant for 2019/20 to supplement councils' own spending on supporting bus and community transport networks in their areas.

Transport minister Ken Skates agreed this year's grant, citing reform as a driving force to improve transport networks across Wales.

In recent years, a small but significant number of councils have reduced or cut entirely from their budgets any funding to support bus and community transport services, meaning the BSSG allocations effectively replace councils' own funding.

“As a government, we need to review our own expenditure to ensure that, given the challenging financial circumstances in which we all find ourselves, we achieve the most beneficial outcomes for the bus network, and bus passengers," said Mr Skates.

He urged councils to ensure they use the grant, in addition to their own revenue support grant, "wisely", for example to help people get to and from non-emergency appointments.

“I'm also pleased to be able to say we'll be testing innovative forms of integrated responsive bus travel in the Valleys, and the trial will very much focus on non-emergency patient transport. We also have plans to carry out other innovative pilots in West and North Wales. I will be providing further details about these pilots in the near future.

“It is my view that demand-responsive transport, working in tandem with community transport services, could offer solutions across the length and breadth of Wales that, to date, have not been deployed. But it will require those radical reforms that are outlined in the White Paper.”

The White Paper, Improving public transport, sets out ambitious proposals to improve the legislative framework for how local bus services are planned and delivered, together with reform of the licensing regime for taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs).

It puts forward a range of options to empower local authorities to determine the most appropriate model for providing bus services in their area, and for tackling the inconsistencies and challenges with the licensing of taxis and PHVs.

Ken Skates added:

“Using the new powers we have gained in the Wales Act 2017, we can reshape the public transport network in a way that supports our ambition to increase the number of people using public transport and encourage travellers to switch from private car use; reducing pollution and congestion.”

Local authorities that have applied successfully to the Welsh Government for civil enforcement powers for parking, bus lane or moving traffic contraventions are able to use any surplus after meeting their costs to support public transport initiatives in their areas.