THE Slough Conservatives are demanding the government intervene in the council’s controversial A4 bus lanes trial.

The opposing Tories revealed they have written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, to intervene and review the council’s ‘rushed’ and ‘botched’ implementation of bus lanes from Huntercombe Spur to Uxbridge Road.

They have also called for the government to look into Slough Borough Council’s ‘abuse’ of its grant from the active travel fund – the local authority received over £200,000 with around £50,000 spent on the bus and cycle lanes.

In the letter, the Slough Conservatives believe the experimental trial has done the exact opposite of what the scheme set out to do without any public consultation.

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They believe the bus lanes have increased traffic congestion, made air quality worse due to long queues, worsened public safety, not improved social distancing and believe the council has ‘misused’ public funds.

They also say the council has ignored a petition of over 5,500 signatures demanding the lanes to be abolished.

This call for intervention comes after Grant Shapps told the Daily Telegraph he would “personally intervene to scrap the worst examples where local authorities have ruined high streets and residential roads” by using money from the £250 million fund.

The chairman of the Slough Conservatives, Lee Pettman, said: “Patience over Labour’s Traffic Chaos in Slough, caused by their calamitous bus line on the A4, is wearing thin amongst the residents and taxpayers of our town.

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“If after such rage they cannot take responsibility and listen to residents, then we must call on the Government to intervene.

“We seriously believe that not only is the bus lane inappropriate, but is a serious misuse of the purpose as well as a waste of these public funds, and therefore we feel the Secretary of State would be fully justified in intervening in this case, as he has done in others.”

This issue and the petition will be debated at the next full council meeting on September 24 (Thursday).