Conservative Councillors have called for any proposal for a council run bus service to be founded in proper planning, expertise and accountability to ensure that the service genuinely works for residents.
These calls come as a response to a Liberal Democrat motion at next week’s Full Council which asks the Labour administration to bring forward a proposal for a Milton Keynes City Council backed bus service.
The Liberal Democrat original motion calls for the creation of a Council-backed bus service that meets the city’s immediate transport needs and addresses concerns about reliability and accessibility of our city’s public transport. The motion acknowledges that the highly publicised proposal for a Mass Rapid Transport system will be ‘transformational’ but it is a long term project.
Whilst Conservative Councillors agree that better public transport is essential for Milton Keynes, they have raised concerns that the Council currently lacks the technical and managerial capacity to deliver such a complex transport programme. They are seeking to amend the motion to reflect this concern and ask that the administration includes in their proposals whether they need to resource any external expertise and staff to ensure effective and sustainable delivery and management of a council-backed bus service.
Group Leader Cllr Shazna Muzammil said:
“We all want better public transport — residents need a service that’s affordable, reliable, and accessible. But if the Council is genuinely serious about making this work, it needs to show how it will secure the right expertise, oversight, and resources to deliver it properly.
Our amendment is a practical one. It doesn’t oppose the principle of improving bus services — it strengthens it. It ensures that before the Council commits to running its own bus service, it has a clear and credible plan in place to make it sustainable, value for money, and effective for the people who depend on it.”
Cllr Shazna Muzammil added that the issue is about better connectivity across all forms of transport:
“At Friday’s Cycle Symposium event, we heard how better transport links are essential to connecting cycling routes and encouraging people to use more sustainable options. A reliable, joined-up bus network should be part of that bigger picture — not another standalone headline that fails to deliver.
And as we know, planning and delivering projects on time, on budget, and with minimal disruption is not something this Council has a great track record on — which is exactly why we’ve asked for the involvement of external experts to get this right.”
The amendment will be debated at the next Full Council meeting, and Conservatives are urging all councillors to support a responsible, deliverable approach to improving public transport in Milton Keynes.
