Black Hole in Guided Bus Finances

6.21.45pm GMT Thu 8th Nov 2007

Liberal Democrats today attacked the Conservative County Council administration for stumbling into a multi-million pound black hole through their failure properly to estimate the running costs of the unpopular Guided Bus scheme.

The financial case for the Guided Bus assumed that no business rates would be payable on the busway. It now emerges that the business rates for the busway could cost the County Council up to £1m per annum - a sum for which no budget had been provided, and which had not been disclosed at the outset to the bus operators.

With no County Council money available to pay these business rates, the money will have to be recovered through higher charges to the bus operators, which means higher fares for the passengers.

Judy Broadway, Liberal Democrat spoke for Environment and Community Services, said:

'The Conservative County Council has rammed the Guided Bus scheme through, in the face of opposition from the Liberal Democrats, and from more than 3,000 objections from local people. Now it turns out that they got their sums wrong. This arrogant administration is also incompetent'.