BUS bosses have been rapped after spot checks by inspectors found services to be unreliable.

But Blackburn Borough Transport avoided a fine after Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell said she was certain the company had acted responsibly to ensure services ran on time.

Instead of a financial penalty, which could have been as much as £70,000, Mrs Bell ordered that bosses present reliability reports to her every quarter for a year.

She took this action after criticising the company, which is owned by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, for not monitoring services enough to identify and solve problems.

The bus company was brought before a public inquiry, which took place at Burnley Magistrates yesterday, following spot checks by three inspectors in January and February last year.

They monitored the punctuality of the services.

The first inspector found 12 per cent of services failed, the second 22 per cent, and the third 24 per cent.

The bus company's own figures highlighted a number of routes with similar problems, but management said they were operating "reasonably", given the unpredictably of roads with problems such as congestion, accidents, and the weather.

James Hilton, operations director, said they aimed to be 100 per cent punctual, but thought they could realistically achieve 90 per cent.

However, he added, this must be measured over a longer period of time to be worthwhile.

The inquiry heard that the company had been monitoring services for two years, but not in enough detail.

Mrs Bell ordered that the company monitor every route and draw up a realistic punctuality target for each one, then present the figures to her every quarter for a year.