A long-awaited new transport bill leaves councils “hamstrung” to run their own bus companies – Aberdeen’s roads spokesman has said.
The Aberdeen Labour group pledged to reintroduce Grampian Buses back to the city ahead of local elections last year.
They want to run a council-operated service similar to Edinburgh’s Lothian Buses claiming it will be cheaper for commuters and more efficient than the current private operators.
A new draft transport bill has been put out for consultation by the Scottish Government.
Council transport spokesman Ross Grant has written to the government saying that they did not think it went “far enough” in its current form.
Mr Grant said that the draft bill would only allow councils to run services where there was no private operator already in place.
He added that if a council service proved successful then a private firm could take it on without consultation from the council.
He said: “It is no secret that our position as a council is that we would like to run services.
“We were hopeful that the transport bill would include all options for councils including the Lothian buses model used by Edinburgh for some time.
“Unfortunately the draft bill as proposed does not allow this and in our response we have reiterated our position.
“What is proposed is that we can control services where none currently exist. We could be left in a position where the council does all the heavy lifting of setting up as service just for it to be taken over by a private operator.
“The bill as proposed leaves councils completely hamstrung in my opinion – it is the worst of all worlds.”
In June, talks between the council and operator First Bus took place – with the local authority manoeuvring for a bid to run the city’s buses in the future.
It is understood that if the council took over First Aberdeen it would run all the services and take over the bus depot on King Street.
First Bus took over Aberdeen services in 1989 and senior First figures poured cold water on the idea of a sale, saying they were “not interested”.
The full bill is expected to be debated next year.
A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “The Transport Bill will support councils to meet local needs and circumstances for bus provision through a variety of means, including statutory partnerships, local franchising and new powers for local transport authorities, in certain circumstances, to run their own bus services.
“Full consideration will be given to all of the evidence provided on the Bill during its passage through the parliamentary process.”
