The "wheels have come off" bus services says Bedford councillor

But the council said it wants to work with the operators to get the best from both services

Stagecoach and Grant Palmer were due to attend last week’s Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee (September 26), but this was postponed following legal advice, the committee was told.

Paul Pace, chief officer (environment) said: “There are some issues between at least one of the bus operators with the borough council.

“So taking the legal monitoring officer’s advice and discussions with the chief exec it was suggested that they wouldn’t be able to attend this particular meeting.

“That’s not to say that they can’t attend future meetings.”

Councillor Jonathan Abbott (Lib Dem, Clapham and Oakley) said: “It’s amazing how quickly, to use the term, the wheels have come off our public transport in North Bedfordshire.

“In three or four months’ time we’re going to review the whole bus operation in Bedfordshire and I would really like to see the bus operators here so we can speak to them, and ask them about what’s going on and actually find out if they can work together with us.

“We appear to be as a council at the moment trying to lock heads with everyone.

“We’ve locked heads with Bedford BID. We’ve locked heads with the bus operators. Who are we going to go after next? How have we fallen out so badly with the bus operators?”

Mr Pace said: “I’m certainly not aware that we’re locking heads with anybody.

“I’ve set up meetings with my officers to have regular contract meetings with both Stagecoach and Grant Palmer, something that I’m not aware of happening in the past.

“So that is actually allowing the companies to come together to sit down around a table with us and deal with any issues as they come along.

“It is a vital service. We want to protect that service and we want to enhance the service for the residents where we can,” he said.

Councillor Abbott said one operator had recently issued a new timetable for his ward that “appeared to be targeting” the other operator.

“We’re going to have two buses which are running at very small capacity, where [both operators are] going to turn around and go, actually, there’s no point running this service.

“What are we doing to try and work with both bus operators to provide a coordinated service which benefits the residents, not the operators?” he asked.

Mr Pace said: “We want some healthy competition, but we don’t want the situation where it ends up being a competition to try to win certain passengers that then has a detrimental impact on the whole service.

“We’re doing everything possible to get things working as efficiently and effectively as we can for both operators,” he said.