CT Plus Yorkshire: Union renews calls for publicly controlled bus services as Leeds operator enters administration

HCT Group announced their Powells and CT Plus buses would close down with all services stopping on Friday evening (August 5).

It follows a period of financial difficulties for the company, which blamed pre-pandemic struggles, Covid-19 lockdowns and rising fuel and living costs.

The operator runs a number of local bus services including:

30 Horsforth-Horsforth Vale-Pudsey

61 61A St James's Hospital-Hunslet-John Charles Stadium

81 81A Leeds City Centre-Old Farnley-Pudsey

The 113 shuttle bus service that connects Dewsbury & District Hospital, Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract Hospital will be operated by Arriva from Monday (August 8).

Following the announcement TUC’s Better Buses Campaigner in Yorkshire Gareth Forest called for CT Plus and Powell’s to be brought under public control.

“We are calling for CT Plus and Powell’s to be bought as a public bus operator of last resort, in order to plug the gap where bus services have been withdrawn, and to maintain a functioning bus network in the face of ongoing cuts to privately run bus routes.

“This shows the desperate need for mayors to continue to deliver on public control of buses as per their manifesto commitments. We need to see bus franchising assessments accelerated, to end this wild west free market where operators can walk away from vital services with no consequences.”

Mr Forest also hit out at the operator for failing to consult the union before pulling the plug on their operations referring to the decision as the “height of irresponsibility.”

Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, has joined calls for the Government to extend the Bus Recovery Grant so that more operators don’t suffer the same fate.

“My fear is that this is only the start. Bus patronage hasn’t risen as quickly as we’d like after the pandemic, which is why I and others have been calling on Government to extend its Bus Recovery Grant beyond October,” she said.

“Smaller operators need that support to help them through this difficult time, they don’t have multi-national parent companies to fall back on."