Hard-Hitting Report On Portsmouth Bus Scheme Errors

[whole diary]

[Lee]

A hard-hitting council report has lifted the lid on the series of errors that killed off Portsmouth City Council's 'bus portals' project (link below.)
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/Report-exposes-blunders-over-new.3967298.jp

The scheme was designed to give passengers live timetable information about how buses were running ^ but it was plagued by expensive technical errors and the city council pulled the plug after it spiralled ^2m over budget.

A probe into the fiasco by city council audit manager Lyn Graham has pointed the finger at council executives who left the high-profile project in the hands of a relatively junior project manager on ^38,000 a year.

In a worrying echo of the George Semmens report, which looked into the council's failings in the early days of the Spinnaker Tower, the auditor's report reveals that senior council officers failed to closely monitor what the project manager was doing.

The report, due to go before councillors tomorrow, found that the council took on all the financial risk of the project, instead of sharing it with partners such as the bus companies.