A CALL for East Riding Council to pay all of a transport grant it will be given next year to bus operators to protect rural services has been rejected.
Labour councillor Paul Hogan said a commitment by the authority to pay 100 per cent of new funding it is set to receive through the Government's Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG) to bus firms would boost remote rural communities where buses are the only form of public transport.
Local councils will take over responsibility for administering the grant.
Almost £4.5m of grant money was handed out to bus operators in the East Riding this year.
But speaking in a full council debate, Cllr Hogan said cuts in the grant funding provided by the Government as part of its recent spending review meant £875,000 was being lost in public transport funding in the East Riding.
"What I am asking for ensures devolved funding does not become deducted funding," he said.
Ahead of councils being given greater control over the way the grant money is spent on some bus services, he said the East Riding needed to show it was committed helping people living in rural areas to access education facilities, employment and health services.
"For a large proportion of the population of the East Riding, public transport consists entirely of buses," he said.
But Cllr Hogan's motion on the issue was defeated with the majority Conservative group backing an amendment submitted by Councillor Simon Fraser, the cabinet portfolio for transport.
He said limiting grant money to bus firms might impact on a number of not-for-profit community transport groups which currently provide a number of vital bus services across the area.
"To make this kind of commitment would be dangerous and not a very clever way forward at this point in time."
He claimed it was not yet clear how the Government's move to devolve decision-making over the grants to councils would work in practice.
"I can very easily see a point in the future when bus operators who do not receive a grant decide there is no point in putting in another claim for something they might not get.
"I have no idea what the Department for Transport is going to work that one out."
Transport secretary Norman Baker said: "Our reforms will give councils more freedom to determine appropriate bus provision, handing more power to local communities to take decisions based on local knowledge and priorities."
