Council Leader Peter Marland has said that claims by Milton Keynes Conservatives about cuts to some bus routes are the 'worst type of political scaremongering'.
Earlier today, MKFM received a press release from the Conservative Group on Milton Keynes Council stating that the service on a number of popular city bus routes would be at risk of being axed.
They included the 300 bus serving the Coachway and Woburn Sands, the 11 and 12 serving Kents Hill and the OU, the 28 serving Bletchley, Furzton and Westcroft as well as the 33 and 33a serving Wolverton and Hanslope.
Many bus routes in Milton Keynes are subsidised by money given to the Council through the building of new housing developments. The money allocated to the routes above is set to run out in March.
The local Conservatives claimed that 'it has been confirmed Labour have no plans to support the bus routes in the future'.
Cllr Peter Geary said: "This budget has shocked me. The lack of transparency has - at times - been incredible and should worry residents. It took me a lot of pushing and fighting to find out Labour's plans for bus cuts."
But the Leader of the Council Peter Marland says the routes will not be affected by the ending of developer subsidies.
He said: “I am afraid this is absolutely that worst type of political scaremongering seeking a headline from the MK Conservatives. As a well-run Labour administration we have ensured that there is enough flexibility in the public transport pot to carry on current services in the next financial year."
"I can therefore guarantee that every single subsidised bus route will carry on running for at least the next financial year, and this includes those currently funded by developer contributions."
"Labour-run MK Council is not proposing to cut a single penny from public transport and we have maintained the budget for subsidised bus routes at current levels for another year in our proposals, despite having to deal with another £8m in cuts to our budget near year. The funding in question does not come from MK Council, it comes from one-off contributions made by developers to help start-up bus routes in new developments."
"When that funding ends there is a conversation with the bus operator about the future of the service, as they may be able to run commercially. It has never been council policy to simply carry funding services when developer contributions runs out because it gives the private operators no incentive to make the routes economically sustainable. It is financially illiterate and premature of the MK Conservatives to say to bus operators we’ll carry on paying for something that may be commercially viable."
"The MK Conservatives seem more interested in grabbing headlines that being a serious opposition, but I think proposing to spend £300k of taxpayers money on services that aren’t even at risk is a bit useless even for them.”
