AFTER much pushing and prodding from this newspaper, Environment finally came clean. The proposed increase to bus fares is a cynical ploy to get bus users to give the department a £400,000 pay rise.

What for is not clear. It could be frittered in all sorts of ways and, representing as it does about 10 staff, is a marvellous fillip to staff recruitment.

The vague ‘in due course’ it might be returned to Treasury is simply not good enough – no department should be making fast and loose with public funds in this manner.

There are two worrying aspects to this. Firstly, whatever Environment may say, it has no traffic strategy because there is nothing measurable or deliverable behind its mantra of ‘giving freedom of transport choice’. And, in any event, what is that supposed to achieve?

Secondly, there is no evidence that the department has paid much regard to the Tribal Group’s involvement in the fundamental spending reviews. Its officers were staggered at the lack of thought that had gone into the huge subsidy lavished on Island Coachways – or what the taxpayer was getting in return.

It urged a full review of how best to operate a bus service in Guernsey, and that would have included seeking other operators, negotiating contract options and assessing the viability of each and aiming to bring in a fresh start based on as close to zero subsidy as possible when the current Island Coachways contract ended.

How much of that – if any – has been done is not clear, but Tribal believed that £3.6m. could be saved over five years, equivalent to £724,600 p.a.

Yet Environment’s response appears to have been keeping things exactly as they are and transferring £400,000 a year from the back pocket of bus users straight into the department’s coffers.

It actually beggars belief and highlights two things: the department’s lack of commitment to meaningful savings and its unsuitability to be involved in traffic matters.

Having destroyed the paid parking-subsidised buses carrot and stick approach to minimising car use in St Peter Port, it now wants to penalise those few who currently choose to use the buses.

And pretends it is a strategy…