It’s emerged that Labour’s West of England Mayor Dan Norris has spoken with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham about bus franchising.

The Bristol Post reported on Wednesday that Mr Norris made a trip to Manchester to see his Labour counterpart to talk about what could be done to improve bus services here.

Andy Burnham has recently finished bringing buses in Greater Manchester back into public ownership, after decades of privatisation.

Dan told the Bristol Post: “We need a better bus service. Franchising could be a great solution, but it’s clear it also brings financial risk to taxpayers.

“One thing that’s also clear is a lot of change is necessary with big choices, and reaching agreement on issues from the amount of capital funding the government provides, to who manages every bus stop.

“I’ve had some important discussions which need to continue.”