In 2021, Plymouth Citybus, trading as Go Cornwall Bus, won the contract to run the bus routes in Cornwall that are subsidised by Cornwall Council. Usually, with council contracts, once they have been awarded and it is confirmed that they are not subject to legal challenge, the contracts are available in the public domain so that residents can see how the council is spending taxpayers’ money.
I made a Freedom of Information request in April 2022 to obtain a copy of the contract awarded to Citybus. The council refused to supply a copy and claimed that all of the contract was commercially confidential. I appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office and, finally, in March 2023, the ICO made its decision and ordered Cornwall Council to provide me with a copy of the contract, albeit with one important section (the details of routes and overall subsidy paid) omitted. CC were given 35 days to provide the information. On the 35th day, CC duly emailed me a copy. It is a rather strange document and difficult to follow, but if you are interested in reading it, see Plymouth Citybus contract.
One section of the contract deals with potential penalties for various failures to perform the contract according to the specification. See contract key performance indicators. For example, if the company fails to operate a particular service, a penalty of £100 could be payable.
My understanding is that, during the pandemic and for a while after the ending of pandemic but whilst bus companies were still trying to recover from the adverse effects such as serious driver shortages, the Department for Transport’s advice to councils was not to impose the penalties on bus companies. However, I am informed by a reliable source within the bus industry that this guidance is no longer applicable. This source also tells me that Cornwall Council were not imposing contractual penalties earlier this year when they could have been, but they decided in April to start imposing them with effect from 1 April. On 28 April, I emailed the portfolio holder for transport on the Cornwall Council Cabinet to confirm whether or not this was the case. I have had no reply to my email. According to Go Cornwall Bus’s Twitter feed each day during week commencing 15 May, the company cancelled at least 70 services in that week, see cancelled services. Whether or not Cornwall Council did actually impose £100 penalties for each of these failures (£7,000 in total) is unknown. The Council’s local transport team are very reluctant to divulge any information about this sort of thing.
Update
17 August 2023
See new story detailing how no penalties have actually been imposed.