Tees Flex, the Tees Valley’s on-demand responsive bus service, will cease to operate at the end of March 2026. The scheme comes to the end of its life after six years, having been launched in early 2020. In its place, some funding will be used to subsidise two routes; which will run hourly, one in Hartlepool and one linking East Darlington with West Stockton.
TVCA Cabinet members had the opportunity to either continue with Tees Flex – set to cost £4.65mn over three years – or scrap it and spend the money elsewhere. As has been reported previously, continuing with Tees Flex would be an active decision as the contract is currently set to conclude at the end of March 2026.
At the meeting, held on Friday 12 December, local authority leaders did not want to see the continuation of Tees Flex, branding it as not good value for money, while Tees Valley Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen spoke in defence of the service and the improvements that would be made if the model continued.
The on-demand transportation sees passengers book a journey through an app on their smartphone before being directed to a pick up/drop off point nearby. There is a fleet of nine fully accessible mini-buses that currently link up more rural communities across the Tees Valley.
Alan Weston, head of transport and infrastructure at TVCA, confirmed that the combined authority is set to be on the receiving end of nearly £26m over a three year period, equalling just over £8.6m a year. He said that this pot of money – the bus service improvement plan (BSIP) funding – is now known as the local authority bus grant.
He explained that there are 13 supported services across the Tees Valley at the present time (excluding Tees Flex), with leaders recommended to continue this support on a temporary basis until July, to allow time to work out a three year programme. Cabinet also had the opportunity to delegate the development of the longer term proposal to the transport committee and then consider the proposals at a TVCA Cabinet meeting in March 2026. These initial recommendations were agreed by all at the meeting.
Separately, if approved, the new Tees Flex contract would run from April 2026 to March 2029. It was confirmed to Middlesbrough Labour Mayor Chris Cooke that the time period had to be at least three years. As part of this option, an opportunity existed to try and reduce the cost through changes to the fares, the pre-booking period and preventing users from booking a journey when there is “another viable, commercial opportunity”, Weston explained.
New routes
The alternative had seen analysis conducted by TVCA to find where the high usage of Tees Flex has been and identify gaps where there aren’t existing services available. Proposals would see two new fixed services. One of which would be an hourly service linking Elwick and Dalton Piercy with Hartlepool Sixth Form and Hartlepool town centre. The other would be an hourly service linking Stillington, Whitton, Carlton, Redmarshall, Great Stainton to North Tees Hospital/Roseworth Tesco and Stockton High Street.
Councillor opposition to Tees Flex
The latter option would require £440K per year. Labour Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, leader of Hartlepool Council, said that she believed the preferred option for her town would be to “cease” with Tees Flex and go with the fixed routes. She said: “We could install those two routes, for a total cost of around £1.3mn, over the three years, and that still gives over £3mn to look at an option for Redcar, or to explore other options.”
Darlington leader, Councillor Stephen Harker (Labour) said: “The subsidy per journey [for Tees Flex] is somewhere shy of £19.50 per journey. I think it’s only meeting something like 63% of booking requests, only 36% of the time does the bus have more than one person on. And half the time, it’s actually running with nobody on it. So it’s very difficult to see – to justify how that service can be argued as the best value.”
Cllr Harker was also supportive of the two fixed routes that were made as part of the alternative recommendation to continuing with Tees Flex. He said that there was clearly “heavy” usage between the locations that have been recommended for fixed routes. Cllr Harker added: “Response-led services such as Tees Flex are, generally speaking, always expensive to run and they aren’t always necessarily the best solution.”
Mayor Cooke meanwhile said: “I understand the fact that we are trying to move towards a proper, sustainable transport system. And [Tees Flex] feels like we are then putting money into a solution, which feels… a bit legacy.” He believed this to be the case as routes being built up would be running alongside Tees Flex, with the latter still taking money.
He added: “It costs a pound per kilometre, while empty, which just doesn’t feel right, I don’t know how we can justify that.” He said as TVCA tries to bring in more routes, the statistics that Cllr Harker raised will worsen, “but our ability to bring in more routes will be hampered by the fact that it’s a three year contract which is essentially not doing what we need it to do”, Mayor Cooke argued.
The Middlesbrough mayor added: “If we continue as we are, we are not moving towards a proper, sustained public transport system and I think that’s where we need to be.”
Houchen comment
Tees Valley Mayor Houchen differed from his local authority counterparts, saying: “In defence of Tees Flex, I think it is a good model, I think it can be better, I think there is significant improvements that can be made and I think officers have put in suggestions as to how that can be done around fares, pre-booking, usage etc.”
Mayor Houchen voted for the recommendation to extend Tees Flex, with the three local council leaders disagreeing. Mayor Cooke asked if it would be possible to get the three year figure down at all. Mr Weston explained the vehicles currently being used “are effectively life expired” and so, to bring new vehicles on would require at least a three year contract.
The alternative option – two fixed routes – was given unanimous support, with Mayor Houchen offering his backing as Tees Flex was no longer an option. More than two hours into the meeting at this point, leaders from Stockton and Redcar had left for other commitments, so only four voting members were present.
Following the meeting, Mayor Houchen said: “Today the TVCA cabinet voted on the continuation of the Tees Flex service. I voted to continue this service that has provided a lifeline for people like Norma in North Skelton.”
“However, the other Labour leaders voted, as is their right, against the proposed extension and so Tees Flex will now stop. I have agreed with the cabinet to use the money we have available to look at supporting new routes to try to ensure local people in rural communities continue to be connected to work.”
