Tories accused of disgraceful complacency over guided bus review

2.00.18pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th Jun 2010

Nichola Harrison

Cambridgeshire Tories have been accused of a "disgraceful level of complacency" after calling for a routine review of the guided bus fiasco.

Furious Liberal Democrats, whose demands for a public inquiry were dismissed by the Tories, claim the county council does not have a good track record of learning from its mistakes.

They have attacked plans to allow a cross-party scrutiny committee to review the guided bus claiming they do not go far enough.

Nichola Harrison, Lib Dem Environment Spokesman said: "Council Leader, Jill Tuck refused to hold a public inquiry into the management of the guided busway project and that was wrong.

"I'm glad she and her colleagues have now seen sense; but their suggestion that all that is needed is a routine review is ridiculous. The council does not have a good track record of learning from from its mistakes - the long delays with the Cambridge Central Library project prove that.

"The problems with the guided bus project are desperately serious. The council is putting tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money at risk financing a project that it has no power to complete.

"This latest announcement to hold a routine review shows a disgraceful level of complacency and desire to make light of the problem."

Kilian Bourke, Lib Dem Highways Spokesman said: "The Tories are just paying lip service to all the people who have demanded answers to this whole fiasco. This shows a total lack of respect to the residents of this city who will be picking up the bill for their mistakes.

"They should have had the courage to call a public inquiry with a panel of leading independent experts so that the whole project could have been scrutinised openly, transparently and objectively."