A DECISION on new tenders for bus services in Andover has been put off because not enough companies put in bids.

Tenders were sought for 25 new contracts for the area, most of which is currently covered by Stagecoach. But at a meeting of Hampshire County Council's public transport sub-committee on Monday members were told there was not enough competition to make a choice.

A spokeswoman said: "Normally the contracts are put out to tender and we usually take the better service. But on this occasion we only received an average of 1.92 tenders per contract.

"That means we have not been able to announce the result of the tender because there hasn't been enough competition." The tendering exercise forms part of the county council's rolling programme that replaces all existing Andover area contracts, which are due to expire on 24 February. Most of the old Andover area contracts are operated by Stagecoach Hampshire Bus, with three contracts covering 21 services.

The remainder are operated by Pike Coaches, Burghfield Mini-coaches and Weavaway Travel. The total cost to the county council comes to £352,641.

Councillors heard that the contracts cover a variety of urban, rural, school and work journeys, with some of the rural journeys operating on fewer than six days per week.

A report to the committee said that passenger surveys of all contracted journeys demonstrated a good level of patronage on most of the existing contracts.

"The opportunity was then taken to re-plan services to reflect comment, usage patterns and efficiency improvements," says the report.

Tenders were then sought for 25 new contracts and invitations sent out to 37 operators. The council spokeswoman said that it was intended to resolve the problem and announce the result of tendering within the next few weeks.