Council chooses Enhanced Partnership Plus bus agreement despite MP’s suggestion
24/10/2025
Sean Woodcock wanted the County Council to look at public ownership
Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet have agreed to move forward with an Enhanced Partnership Plus agreement with local bus operators – despite being urged by Banbury’s MP Sean Woodcock to take back bus services into public ownership.
The County Council deemed this not feasible in the immediate future because of the timetable for local government reorganisation in Oxfordshire.
The government is making it easier for authorities like the county council to take greater control of the bus services in their areas by pursuing bus franchising or creating new municipal bus companies.
The County Council anticipate that franchising would take 45 months to complete, but Oxfordshire County Council is due to be replaced by a new unitary authority by April 2028 – 29 months away.
The council’s Executive took the advice in a report which stated that an Enhanced Partnership Plus agreement had the potential to realise significant additional benefits for bus users. These would typically be associated with franchising, but delivered in a more timely, cost-effective, and lower-risk manner.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, said: “Any move towards franchising would take nearly four years and likely halt any private sector investment in the bus network during that period. If the government’s programme for local government reorganisation proceeds according to schedule, then Oxfordshire County Council would cease to exist during that period, and those responsibilities would pass to a successor council or mayoral authority.
“Therefore, we believe it’s not sensible to invest considerable amounts of time and resources into initiating changes which would not come to fruition during the lifetime of this council.”
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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