A meeting of Luton Council’s Scrutiny Board convened to discuss the unloved Luton-Dunstable Busway was described by councillors present as a farce. Senior managers in charge of the £90M project attended to answer questions from councillors but almost no new information emerged.

Fuming Liberal Democrat leader, councillor David Franks, said:

“The 31st August meeting was a complete farce and made a mockery of the whole scrutiny process. The Board’s request for the Busway report could not have been more clear. The minutes record that what was asked for was ‘a report with sufficient information for the Board to establish whether the project was proceeding on time and on budget’. We received nothing of the kind.”

“The written report gave no useful information and the managers present did not answer any of the serious questions which were asked. Given the closeness of these managers to the project it seems unlikely they did not know the answers.”

“I asked what was their current estimate of the construction costs to completion and they said they did not have that information with them. Of course it makes me suspicious. Is this project heading for a huge overspend and they are afraid to admit it?”