Greener buses for York? – “Don’t know” answer by responsible York Councillor adds to confusion
Cllr Dave Merrett was unable to say whether a bid to the Green Bus Fund had been lodged by York before last Tuesday’s deadline.
Answering a question at last nights Council meeting the Cabinet member for Transport was reminded that he had promised at a meeting held on 10th December that the City would seek a share of the governments £12 million green bus fund.
Para 7 of the minutes of a bus partnership meeting said,
“CYC have commissioned ARUP to undertake a Green Bus Study with two objectives:
• To outline timescales for and a route to deliver zero emission buses in York
• To deliver a successful Green Bus Fund bid for York, with a submission date of 26th March 2013”.
Cllr Merrett appeared unsure whether the bid had actually been sent in and tried to imply that the responsibility rested with First buses.
He was also unable to say how much the ARUP consultancy work had cost taxpayers.
The original Council question had asked what consultation with residents had taken place on the content of the bid.
It now appears that the responsible Cabinet member himself had been kept in the dark about the progress being made. Either that or he wasn’t letting on about his complicity in the shambles.
Obviously a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs.
In a separate debate, Cllr Merrett continued to claim that sales of ”All York” bus tickets could not be publicised “for reasons of commercial sensitivity” ….. and this despite the public minutes of the 10th December meeting claimed that there had been 10000 sales in the first quarter!
Later Council Leader Alexander “tweeted” York Central Liberal Democrats to claim that the sales figures weren’t “secret”.
So we’ll wait and see whether the Council now publishes any information.
