Fare-free bus plan is a farce

This continuing farce to find money for a fare-free bus service has seriously become a mixture of 'On the Buses' and 'Carry on Voting'.

Unfortunately, this epitomises the pathetic performance of the administration we have that after hours, days, weeks of discussion the answer was to vote for something where no one had a clue what the financial result would be, anywhere from half to two million pounds per year of income from selling parking clocks.

Against this we are going to engage a contract, I understand, that will cost £4.4m. per year plus the cost of new replacement buses, so anything up to another £3-4m. unless of course they get them on contract hire, which is how most operators in the UK work. And for what? A fare-free service that hardly anybody believes will make a significant difference whatsoever to the utilisation. I have never seen so many empty buses driving round as this winter.

We are told this can be paid for because we are not going to build a bus depot that we did not need (nobody puts buses away in garages these days and most operators contract out maintenance) – a yard and a washing area is all that is needed.

Given the state of the finances of the island and the other crazy expensive projects – schools, harbour, play school etc. –where on earth is the money going to come from?

In the late 1990s I was chairman and main shareholder of a bus building company in the UK that supplied many buses to Jersey and we offered the then operator in Guernsey new buses at the then 7ft 4½ins legal width and on a Dennis Dart chassis not dissimilar to the ones eventually purchased (and at a lot cheaper price I might add) only to be told that the island could not afford them.

This was in my early years residing here and we accepted that and I now know that the administration in those days was a damn sight tighter with spending money than at present.

This has been a pet project of a few deputies and what is worrying is we have other projects being pushed as what appears to be personal motivation of both deputies and other parts of the administration with little island support (the proposed harbour reorganisation for one).

Ultimately there will have to be found a more co-ordinated financial plan for the island, which I am sure some are working on, but we also need a system of voting so we know what policies we are likely to end up with. Island voting must be part of this, and the voters should also have the right to choose the chief minister from those who put themselves forward for this position.

G. M. OLDROYD,

St Martin's.