Bus companies must be rigorously held to account says councillor ahead of £29million Hertfordshire scheme

Local authorities should be “more rigorous” in holding private bus companies to account ahead of a £29million scheme to connect Herts towns, a councillor has said.

At a Hertfordshire County Council meeting yesterday (November 1), councillors debated a report on a Bus Service Improvement Plan which earned the authority a £29.7m pledged grant from the Government.

Councillors said they welcomed bus service improvements, but some members urged Cllr Phil Bibby (Con, St Nicholas), Hertfordshire’s Highways and Transport Cabinet Panel chair and council cabinet member for transport, to haul bus operator bosses into County Hall so members could grill them over poor service.

Councillor Nigel Taylor (LD, Berkhamsted) said: “In my experience, when a bus doesn’t turn up, it destroys confidence in the system. I would like to understand what they’re doing about it to address this.”

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst (LD, Central Watford and Oxhey) said: “We are the Highways and Transport Panel, and buses are transport. I think we have a duty to be a bit more rigorous.”

The chair said: “I don’t think anyone here would like this panel to turn into a bus users’ group.” He added: “I don’t think cabinet panels are really set up to take these presentations. They’re here to get us to debate issues and I fear we would take two, three, four hours just lobbing stones at them and I don’t think it’s going to get us anywhere.”

Cllr Bibby suggested a different panel – a scutiny committee – could choose to summon bus firm bosses at a later date.

Hertfordshire County Council was one of 31 authorities in the UK to be successful in applying for a share of more than £1billion to improve buses.

The council’s £29.7m plan involves creating a “wonky bow tie” network to link up Watford, Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Stevenage and Hertford which leaders hope will be financially “self-sustainable”. They will then invest in a secondary network and could prop up services which need extra support.

A total of 60 real-time bus information screens would be installed across a two-year period, subject to funding.