Councillors warn they could delay increase to bus tax if they don't have longer to scrutinise the plan

A Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) committee has warned it could delay plans to increase residents’ council tax bills if it doesn’t have time to properly scrutinise them.

Overview and scrutiny committee member Cllr Martin Hassall (Liberal Democrats, Buckden) said this week that it can’t accept only having a few days to consider the “huge” decision to increase the CPCA’s mayoral precept because “we can’t manage our calendar properly”.

The committee was told that the earliest it’ll find out which bus routes Dr Nik Johnson plans to subsidise with his precept – which could be tripled to £36 per year – is 23rd January: just days before they will be asked to debate it on 29th.

It will then be presented to the CPCA board – which has the power to accept or veto it – on 31st.

Cllr Hassall added that the scrutiny committee should make the board aware that it could ‘call in’ the decision if it doesn’t feel it’s had sufficient time to digest the details of Dr Johnson’s plans, meaning it would have to be looked at again.

Precept could rise in April

So far, we know that Dr Johnson’s precept, which appears on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough council tax bills, could jump from £12 to £36 for Band D properties, with the change coming into effect in April if it’s approved.

Dr Johnson says that the money this would raise – around £11m – would help continue supporting bus services which are currently kept afloat by the CPCA, as well as deliver improvements including better bus stops and shelters and depots for electric buses.

It could also help routes which are almost commercially viable become so, he says, and better synchronise the public bus network system with those that specifically serve schools, hospitals and businesses.

Precept figure ‘feels plucked out of the air’

Cllr John Neish (Conservatives, Holywell-cum-Needingworth), another member of the CPCA’s scrutiny committee, was also critical of the lack of detail currently available around these plans.

“I think it’s quite difficult as a scrutiny committee to look at whether it’s good value for money or it’s not good value for money because there’s no information that I’ve found as to why it’s £36 as opposed to £100, as opposed to £12,” he said at a meeting this week.

“It feels, to myself, plucked out of the air, because there doesn’t seem to be any scrutinised figures that say this is what we’re going to do and this is what it’s going to cost.”

“We don’t know whether it’s right or wrong because we don’t know the detail backing it,” Cllr David Brown (Conservatives, Burwell) added.

Peterborough Conservatives say they oppose possible rise

But one committee member’s mind is already made up: Cllr Steve Allen (Conservatives, Eye, Thorney and Newborough) said that Peterborough’s Conservative group don’t support the proposed increase.

The group no longer has representation on CPCA’s board since Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted) replaced Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) as Peterborough City Council leader; but the latter remains a member of the scrutiny committee, with Cllr Allen occasionally substituting for him.

Cllr Allen was told at the meeting that the scrutiny committee is supposed to be non-political and shouldn’t be predetermined.

The CPCA’s board is due to meet at 10am on 31st January when the precept will be discussed and could be agreed.

Two thirds of the board would have to veto the rise for it to fail.