THE Royal Borough is “disappointed” it did not receive millions of pounds of government money to improve bus travel.

Last year, the council submitted a bus service improvement plan (BSIP) that sets out its vision for bus travel in the area in hopes to have a slice of the £3bn ‘Bus Back Better’ scheme, which is a national plan to improve bus services as well as make them cheaper and greener.

Some of the possible plans included adding a bus station in Maidenhead or increasing services on Sunday.

Nearly 80 local authorities applied, including Slough, Bracknell, and Wokingham, but only 34 areas successfully managed to secure funding, such as Reading which received £26.3m.

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Only £1.2bn of the scheme has been dished out to the successful local authorities.

The government said areas not showing ‘sufficient ambition’ to improve bus travel would not receive funding.

Councillor Phil Haseler (Con: Cox Green), cabinet member for highways and transport, said the council is “disappointed” that the Department for Transport (DfT) did not award funding to them, adding the Royal Borough “falls within the lowest priority category in the Levelling Up Fund priority index.”

He said: “Within our BSIP, we responded ambitiously and positively to government, aiming to achieve significant improvements to bus services for our residents and the environment.

“The process was driven by the DfT and was therefore broadly reliant on funding from the department. We will be engaging with the DfT to understand further details of its decision and will continue to work closely with operators through our Enhanced Partnership to look at how services could be improved.

“Despite this decision, we are still able to progress some elements of the BSIP using available funds, including a review of the bus network, which will make recommendations around current areas of the borough that are not sufficiently covered by bus routes.

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“We will also look to progress the investment in technology to improve our bus data, a feasibility study for multi-operator ticketing and improvements to on-board services such as Wi-Fi and charging.

“We will also continue to explore the range of potential funding sources to take forward more of the proposals within the BSIP, such as developer contributions and any future government funding opportunities that arise.”

He also said the council is setting out a local transport plan to reduce carbon emissions using £180,000 funding from the DfT and is also developing a plan to improve and support cycling and walking.

This is not the first time the council missed out on government funding. Earlier this year, the Royal Borough was not allocated any funding to draw up cycling and walking infrastructure plans to support active travel after it abandoned plans to add a bus gate in Shoppenhangers Road, Maidenhead, and two low-traffic neighbourhoods.