Cambridgeshire mayor's 'bus tax' could treble to raise £11m

A "bus tax" that households in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough pay could treble from April.

The area's Labour mayor backed a plan to increase the average levy from £12 a year to £36, raising around £11m.

The Combined Authority, which he chairs, reviewed 19 subsidised bus routes, including one that costs £124 per passenger.

One Conservative council leader said the authority should "cut our losses" and refused to support the tax hike.

The charge, which is added to council tax bills and is known as a mayoral precept, was first introduced in April 2023.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) is responsible for public transport and stepped in to save 23 bus routes in October 2022 after Stagecoach said it could no longer run them.

It introduced the new tax to raise £3.6m to support bus services into the following financial year.

Board papers discussed at a meeting on Wednesday said further cash was "needed to secure the bus network for the future" and that, despite investment, "the network will not be able to serve a significant minority of the population" without more money.

Spending an additional £7.5m would "enable both more routes and more frequent services on existing routes to be developed, serving far more people more conveniently than is currently the case," the papers added.

In a statement, mayor Nik Johnson said the choice was between "leaving things as they are and watching a broken system fall apart" and developing "enhanced services" for residents.

"My argument is that for less than 10p a day per average household the combined authority can invest £11m per year in our bus network, enabling more routes and more frequent services, serving far more people more conveniently than is currently the case," he said.

The authority reviewed 19 of its most heavily subsidised bus services.

It found the 7A, which runs between Duxford, Sawston and Whittlesford, cost £124.83 per passenger and carried 771 passengers in 2022/23.

The review recommended saving 7A and merging it with a home-to-school service to make it more "cost-effective", while "retaining connections for the community".

Anna Bailey, the Conservative leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: "I don't think a 200% increase in the mayor's precept in the current environment is the right thing to do.

"I don't support it, particularly given the context that I don't believe we have properly scrutinised the rest of the budget."

She added the authority should "cut our losses and put our money into better things".

"If we are putting more money in, we should be putting it in to new routes. It would be much better to put money into new routes to see if they can get into a position of being self-sustaining," she said.

The 7A, and four other of the reviewed services, are operated by A2B Travel Group.

Gary Forbes-Burns, A2B's business development and commercial manager, said: "It does hurt when people suggest you're not doing the best you can.

"All the operators across the patch are doing their damnedest to deliver the bus services they operate."

Referring to the 7A service, Mr Forbes-Burns said A2B had "worked with CPCA to try to reduce the cost of that service" and that he believed A2B was already "doing it pretty cheaply".

Bridget Smith, the Liberal Democrat leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, told a Combined Authority board meeting the proposal prompted a "long debate" within her political group.

"The view of my own group is that this is an appropriate use of mayoral precept and it helps us address the problems that are affecting us all," she said.

Ms Smith also said: "The reality is the people on lowest incomes don't pay council tax".

A consultation on the Combined Authority budget proposals is due to open on 30 November and last until 11 January.

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