Anger at First cuts after £60m profits

Bus company First was paid more than £3 million of local tax payers' money to run bus routes and recorded national profits of £60m before it decided to cut services across the Bristol area.

The £3m was provided by seven local authorities in the current financial year, to ensure services that are considered important but are not profitable, could still run.

Bristol City, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Somerset, Somerset County, Wiltshire County and Devon County councils have all part-subsidised journeys on 117 routes run by First across the South West, according to First's website.

The company's most recent performance figures show First's bus division's operating profits jump 26 per cent to £60m nationwide in the six months before September.

But despite such profits, and funding from the tax payer, the company is still pushing ahead with the programme of cuts announced earlier this month.

The service review includes changes to commercial routes to improve reliability, but it has emerged that some of the subsidised routes are to go, which has angered councillors.

Figures obtained by the Post show that in the 2008/09 financial year, Bristol paid £1,314,206 to the transport company (up to January), South Gloucestershire £520,143, Bath and North East Somerset around £490,000, Wiltshire £450,000 and North Somerset £424,700; a total of £3,199,049.

Somerset Council refused to provide its figures, claiming "they are not in the public domain", so given that authority provides part-funding for 34 routes the actual total figure would be higher.

Bus companies can choose which routes they run on a commercial basis, but local authorities can then 'buy' services to fill in the gaps in the commercial network.

The Transport Act requires that in most circumstances the contracts for these services are awarded following competitive tender, to the bus company whose tender offers the best value for money.

The tax-payer supported services to go are the 20A and 20C Bath city circular (BANES); 482 Chipping Sodbury to Cribbs Causeway (South Gloucestershire); 600 Yatton to Cribbs Causeway; 4 Hutton to South Road; 83 Weston centre to Worlebury and 121 Weston to Bristol (North Somerset) and the Nightflyers funded by Bristol City Council, although the company says another operator will take these over as of May 10.

Some other routes in Bristol, including the 51 Bristol centre to Rookery Farm and 20/21 Rookery Farm to Southmead, will also run less often under the new timetable.

BANES Councillor Charles Gerrish (Con, Keynsham North), cabinet member for customer services said: "BANES Council is bitterly disappointed that First bus is reducing its services so substantially at a time when the council is investing substantial capital sums of money in improving bus infrastructure across the district through the Greater Bristol Bus Network and Bath Transportation Package.

"This undermines the confidence people require that a bus service will fulfil their needs in terms of getting to school, to work, to the local shops, or to university.

"The council provides almost £1m per year supporting bus services that otherwise would not be provided by commercial operators.

"The council was told by First of their intention to substantially cutback services just a matter of weeks ago.

"In the period between then and First making a public announcement, the council has been developing plans to preserve what services it can with the money we have available."

First Group is aiming to make £200m of savings across the whole firm by the end of March 2010, to cope with the financial downturn.

The announcement last week saw its shares reportedly soar by more than 13 per cent.

A spokesman for First said: "We are withdrawing from some tendered services where income no longer matches our operating costs. This is for a number of reasons, including falling passenger numbers and cost increases exceeding any annual increment in tender revenue.

"If we no longer operate a tendered journey we no longer receive the relevant financial support from the local authority.

"We have kept councils fully informed of our plans."