City's bus shares could be sold

The council is to spend up to £940,000 to investigate selling the bus company

Plymouth City Council is to press ahead with plans to see how much it could raise from selling Plymouth CityBus.

A report had recommended that it offered CityBus shares for sale to see how much the firm was worth and what interest there was on the open market.

The council's cabinet decided on Tuesday afternoon to offer all of its shares for sale.

The plans have angered the union Unite, which said it feared any sale could result in job losses and route cuts.

The council is to spend up to £940,000 of public money to investigate selling the company, which covers Plymouth and Saltash in Cornwall.

According to Unite, CityBus has been run on a commercial basis for the past 25 years with no other financial help.

The union claimed that more than 400 of its members, including drivers and maintenance workers, would be affected if the firm was sold.

A spokesperson for the council said the union was "scaremongering" to suggest jobs were at risk as, whatever the outcome, there would still be a bus company delivering public transport.