Conservatives have expressed their outrage at the £1m of public money wasted on buying, running and converting a fleet of bio-ethanol buses for Reading Transport Ltd. The wholly Council-owned bus company received a capital grant of £770,000 and a loan of £2.8m from the Borough Council in order to purchase the buses.
However, an internal investigation revealed that no proper investigation or business case was undertaken before such an expensive project was entered into. The report, to be presented at Monday night's Cabinet meeting, also found that the fuel costs of bio-ethanol buses were around £354,000 more than the equivalent diesel buses. Despite a Cabinet report in October 2007 stating that there would be a further report into the costs and benefits of the new buses, no such report was presented. At the time much was made of the sourcing of the fuel from UK sustainable sugar beet waste, whereas in fact the fuel was being imported from Sweden.
The report also highlights major issues over the conduct and advice given by the former Operations Director of Reading Buses and the conflict of interests that existed. It states that the Board of Reading Buses was not informed and did not approve some of the major decisions taken regarding the purchase and operation of the bio-ethanol fleet.
Conservative Group Leader Councillor Andrew Cumpsty said "When the Cabinet was making this decision, I asked whether costing had been rigorously checked and were Cabinet sure about the sourcing of the fuel. The Labour administration said on both counts there was not a problem. Now it is clear that a huge amount of Council Tax payers money was wasted. The assurances I was given by Labour were not true. I would like to know from the Labour Leader of Reading Council, who is going to take responsibility for this huge waste of Council Tax payers money?"
"What this sad episode once again goes to show, Labour can't be trusted to spend Council Tax wisely. First they wasted over a million on their One Way IDR scheme and now another million on buses which were both costly not fit for purpose. Reading needs stronger, competent leadership of the Council, which is why so many people in our Town are now choosing to support the Conservative Party ahead of the other more expensive and failed options".
Conservative Transport Spokesman Councillor Richard Willis said "This is an appalling indictment of the ruling Labour Group's cavalier attitude to spending Council Tax payers' money. They wanted the headlines for introducing bio-ethanol buses in the run up to the 2008 local elections and they therefore rushed into a decision without the proper checks and business case being in place. The impact has been a massive waste of public money and a drain on the balance sheet of Reading Buses at a time when the economy was entering recession and has no doubt contributed to the cuts in services that so many bus users have been experiencing. The Council's internal investigation has revealed a catalogue of poor decisions and lack of proper financial checks. The investigation into the economic case should have been done BEFORE the buses were purchased, something which the Conservative Group called for at the time.
Since so much political capital was sought from the purchase of the buses at the time it is right that political responsibility is taken by Labour for this debacle. Heads should roll for yet another expensive Labour failure. I will be tabling a motion for debate at the next full Council meeting following the local elections."
12th April 2010 | 
