Public survey on buses and other local services 'misleading', Combined Authority councillors say

"Misleading, with its finer details disguised" – this was how councillors described a public consultation on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA)’s future spending.

The online consultation was performed as a “tick box exercise” and “not as a genuine effort to engage the public”, Fenland District Council (FDC) councillor Steve Count (Conservative) said at an extraordinary meeting called to discuss the CPCA’s financial plan.

His comments came after a 10-minute break, which was called to allow councillors to read its finer details, which many said they couldn’t initially find.

Jon Alsop, the CPCA’s Chief Financial Officer, presented the plan to a scrutiny committee made up of cross-party councillors from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough earlier this week.

The plan, which covers the next four years, says that the CPCA’s spending – which is reserved for transport, housing and education projects among others – is currently forecast to be greater than its income.

One of the issues is that, after numerous bus services were cut last year, the CPCA would need to spend £7m in 2023-4 to keep their replacements running - double the planned budget for buses of £3.5m.

To remedy this, it says it will consider reducing services to fit this smaller budget or expanding the service with the deficit made up by making current spending more efficient, asking for money from Cambridgeshire’s various councils, using the CPCA’s savings or introducing a mayoral precept.

This final option would mean that some of the money you pay in tax would go towards the CPCA, which is chaired by Mayor Nik Johnson.

But all this was not made clear in the CPCA’s consultation, councillors said.

“How many responses do you think you would have got if you actually put a press release out saying that the mayor wants to introduce a brand new tax on the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough?” Councillor Count said.

“Because I believe you’d get more than 230 responses, but most people I’ve engaged with have no idea that this is what is actually on the table at the moment.”

Mr Alsop, who had previously provided the 230 figure, said that this represented a significant public response.

He said: “There has been quite a substantial [effort in] putting [the consultation] out into the public domain in terms of social media campaigning and this year we’ve had, at the last count, about 230 responses which is far more than we’ve had in previous consultations. It’s not that people haven’t had the opportunity.”

Cllr Count said that the consultation “could mislead people into responding positively to the mayor’s proposed precept” by suggesting it’s the solution to avoiding bus cuts.

Mr Alsop stressed that the CPCA considers the precept just one possible option to balance the budget.

Other councillors also criticised the consultation, with Peterborough City Council (PCC) councillor Andy Coles (Conservative) saying he was “a little bit bemused” while he tried to “hunt down” the paperwork laying out the details of CPCA’s financial plan.

Mr Alsop offered his “apologies” that “it’s been confusing”, but said that the CPCA have made an effort to publicise the consultation to the public.