Bus route connecting Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire to be withdrawn after talks collapse – but Killamarsh residents benefit from new Sheffield link

Lee Rowley, Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, has issued an update on his campaign around bus services that connect Killamarsh, Renishaw and other parts of his constituency with Chesterfield and Sheffield.

Rowley said: “Bus services are a real challenge all across North East Derbyshire at the moment, with Covid having reduced passenger numbers by more than 25%. Despite that, there has been a lot of work in the background across North East Derbyshire in recent months, which is finally paying off. Firstly, the County Council launched a new Dial-a-Bus service for North Derbyshire a few weeks ago. The feedback from residents, so far, has been extremely positive.

“There have also been challenges on particular services – not least the 80 covering Crystal Peaks, Killamarsh, Spinkhill, Renishaw, Mastin Moor, Staveley and Chesterfield. Last year, Stagecoach pulled out of the service (and ended the Sheffield part of the service fully), saying the drop-off in passenger numbers meant it wasn’t viable.

“Hulleys stepped in for the Crystal Peaks to Chesterfield part of the service but have had significant reliability and punctuality problems and, a few weeks ago, said they were ending the current service from mid-May.”

Rowley confirmed that talks to ensure that services continued between Chesterfield and Killamarsh after Hulleys cease to operate the route next month had collapsed. He did, however, announce details of a new link between Killamarsh and Sheffield.

He said: “Since then, along with Killamarsh’s Conservative Councillors, we’ve been supporting the County Council to try to fill the gap. There’s been a huge amount of work behind the scenes and some great news has now come out.

“The County Council will be funding a direct route to Sheffield – ended last year when Stagecoach pulled out. From May 13, First will extend its 120 into the village to ensure hourly services to Crystal Peaks, Sheffield city centre and the Hallamshire. It’s taken a bit of time to get there but the County Council rolled its sleeves up and have done a great job in getting the link back.

”I understand the final Cabinet Member decision to confirm will be taken in the coming days. Thanks to all of the Councillors and the officers who worked on this.

“The next step is getting a way forward on the Chesterfield and Royal Hospital link (which is the rest of the current 80 service that is set to end as a private operator provision in a few weeks time). The County did also look like they had a solution there, too, and were close to finalising a new service with Stagecoach.

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“As I understand it, towards the end of those discussions, the successful operator changed their initial proposal which meant that the Royal Hospital wouldn’t be served. The County Council refused to go forward with that and so there is now a new tender process running at the moment. We should hear more in the coming days about what might be possible there.”

Rowley added: “Today is a good day and I’m really, really pleased to see progress. There is still more to do on the Chesterfield link and, whilst we cannot guarantee anything at this stage, we’ll keep working on it. Thank you to all residents for their forbearance whilst we have been able to find a way through on this – and hopefully we’ll have more news on the Chesterfield part of the equation soon.”