Additional funding for filling potholes and highways maintenance has been secured for Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council at a meeting of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Board (CPCA) on 22nd January 2025. Conservatives tabled an amendment to the budget proposals and secured agreement to reverse an increase to the Transport Levy which had been proposed by Mayor Nik Johnson.
The Transport Levy is a charge by the CPCA against the two Highways Authorities, Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, for the Mayor to spend on subsidising bus services and concessionary bus fares. It reduces the funding available in the region for highways maintenance.
The Conservatives Leaders of East Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Anna Bailey and Fenland District Council, Cllr Chris Boden tabled an amendment to save £313k from the bus subsidy budget in order to reverse the increase to the Transport Levy.
Cllr Anna Bailey, who proposed the amendment, spoke at the meeting about the disappointment of residents who were paying the Mayor’s charge on Council Tax bills, but not receiving the promised improvements to bus services.
Seconding the amendment, Cllr Chris Boden cited examples of poorly performing bus services, including the Number 204 from Isleham to Newmarket which had been used by less than one person per journey on average, at a cost to the public purse of £285 per passenger per return journey, and the Number 15 from Haslingfield to Royston with a cost per return journey of £243 per passenger. The benchmark target adopted by the CPCA to spend on subsidising bus routes is £24 per return journey.
Cllr Anna Bailey said “The Mayor proposed to take yet more money away from pothole funding in order to continue running bus services that people don’t use and are costing tax payers eye-watering sums of money. It would be cheaper to pay for taxis for people! Residents are fed up with the state of our roads and pavements and they are fed up with paying increased taxes and getting less and less for it.”
Cllr Chris Boden said “I am a huge supporter of bus services, but we have to make sure we are getting proper value for money for residents. When the Mayor and his Lib Dem and Labour supporters on the Board defend bus services costing tax payers £285 for each passenger for every return journey, they are seriously failing the residents of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough”.
Labour's Mayor u-turned on his proposal and supported the Conservative amendment. This followed another u-turn on his proposal to increase Council Tax, after 94% of residents opposed it. However, the Mayor is still proceeding with plans for bus franchising, despite failing to deliver the limited improvements he promised to seven bus routes this year.
The Board also heard that the Mayor's capped bus fares will increase to £2.50 in June. Officials confirmed that the money for his fare cap and Tiger Pass will run out entirely by December 2025, when the budget assumes both schemes will end.
Commenting on the outcome, the Conservative candidate for Mayor, Paul Bristow said: “How can we trust this Mayor with the whole bus network when he can’t even get a few services right? Even his much-publicised schemes will be over by Christmas. Only Cambridgeshire's Conservatives are getting value and results for local taxpayers. It's time we had a Mayor who can do the same.”
