Tories break promise and stash taxpayers' money for guided bus

2.08.34pm GMT Tue 26th Jan 2010

David Jenkins

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have accused the Conservative-run county council of breaking its promise not to spend a penny of taxpayers' money on the guided busway.

The Tories have diverted £1m of funding for local transport and community safety projects to a contingency fund to cover some of the busway overspend.

Lib Dem group leader David Jenkins said: "These figures show that local services are bearing the brunt of the over-budget busway. The Conservatives are arguing on a technicality that this is not local money, but it is money that is administered by local authorities and supposed to be spent on local schemes.

"Important safety projects are being scaled back significantly to compensate. Budgets for ordinary bus projects in Cambridge and Huntingdon have also taken a big hit, and a provision for improving rural transport is being slashed by 75 per cent."

Fifteen different budgets for local projects have been reduced for 2010-11 to compensate for the busway overspend.

These include:

• Safety Schemes cut from £1m to £0.8M - (20 per cent)

• Cambridge Access Strategy cut from £0.6m to £447,000 - (25 per cent)

• Community Transport (rural demand responsive buses) cut from £0.2m to £50,000 - (75 per cent)

• Market Town Strategy Schemes cut from £1.575m to £1.4m - (11 per cent)

• Local bus Infrastructure in Cambridge and Huntingdon cut from £0.975m to £0.68m - (30 per cent)

Highways spokesperson, Kilian Bourke said: "The Conservatives can spin this however they like, but these figures show that local services are being cut as a consequence of the guided bus going over schedule and over budget.

"Money has been cut from lots of transport budgets leaving them feeling the pain, but the Tories are banking on the fact that nobody else will notice."

Julian Huppert, Cambridge parliamentary candidate said: "The people of Cambridge have taken the brunt of the disruption to create the guided busway. Now we are going to be hit in our pockets as well. This is totally unacceptable. The Tories' poor financial management has caused this problem and now we the taxpayers are being forced to bail them out. Their cuts to safety schemes and bus schemes will really hit people hard."