DEPRIVED of premises big enough to hold the extra buses needed for a free service for all schoolchildren, a key element of the States transport strategy has come to a grinding halt.
Alongside it, following the Assembly’s decision to refuse Environment permission to get specialist advice, now struggles a full review of the bus service which could end up saving the island millions.
For, while no one wants the States to waste tens of thousands on expensive UK consultants, in this instance there is an element of ‘penny-wise, pound foolish’.
Environment admits it is in a muddle. One read of its States report shows that it has little idea what to do with the bus service over the next five years, let alone the next 25.
The department, we learn, is in a ‘dilemma’ faced with ‘complicated difficulties’ and cannot identify simple options. Challenged to develop an acceptable service which does not require an annual subsidy of £2.25m., the department puts forward six alternatives which range from the radical – taking the service entirely into States hands – to sticking with the status quo.
Unsure which of these options represents the way forward in ‘an involved and highly complex situation’, the department argues it needs professional help, at a cost of perhaps £100,000.
In these parsimonious times that is, of course, a significant sum (a long list of worthy projects were stymied by the States for just such an amount). But it pales before Tribal Helm’s estimate of the net revenue savings available over five years if the subsidy can be cut.
Spend £100,000 to save £3.62m.? It’s a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, Environment considered it such a fait accompli that it devoted little space in the Billet to arguing the case. And in the States the minister was left to make the argument without support from his fellow department members.
The result? A department that knows it lacks the expertise to solve a complex issue has been told to get on with it and stop whining.
What odds that it generates the same momentum as the free bus service? Yet, for every month it stalls, those savings are lost.
Article posted on 30th November, 2009 - 2.30pm
2 Article Comments
Am I the only person to notice how little Tribal actually said?
Basically their report said that if you didn’t spend x millions a year subsidising the buses you could save x millions a year. Genius.
Their predicted savings of £3,623,000 over 5 years equates to £724,600 a year ….. which still leaves a subsidy of £1.5 million a year …
If Tibal know we can save this money, they must have worked out how …. so why can’t they tell us, why do we have to pay someone else another £100,000 ?
And if they don’t know how then they have just “guestimated” and made up a number ….. which makes their report pretty meaningless to my mind.
Here’s a suggestion …. put up the fares from 60p to £1.00. By my maths that alone should rake in at least £500,000 a year ….
Introduce a charge on long term parking, say 25p an hour, you’d have more money to spare than they’d know what to do with ….
problem solved, can I have my £100,000 please ???
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Hi Tony
The problem was Tribal couldn’t get his hands on the books of ICW so he had no option but to estimate the savings with the figures given to him by the States.
If we could get our hands on the books you will find we could save even lots more.
I believe 10% of the subsidy is clear profit for ICW give or take that’s around £200,000 which is a lot of money for the tax payer.
The question is how many directors are there in this company and how much are they getting paid for doing nothing.
Your idea of increasing the fares is OK but it should be to £1.50 per fare, I use buses in England a lot and you wouldn’t get anywhere for 50 or 60p you need at least £1.80.
The idea of paid parking is a none starter and the reasons why, the paid parking will be subsidising a profit making company which in turn pay their directors and MD inflated salaries and to top that up they have a nice Christmas bonus around £200k themselves, is not bad for a company which I believe does not own any assets.
I know you will never run the buses at a profit, but we can make a lot of savings and still run a decent bus service.
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