“WE need someone who knows how to run a business to run the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry - not a corner shop or a parish council.”

These are the words from the senior councillor with responsibility for Transport in Cornwall, Councillor Philip Desmonde, who says he was excluded from an important meeting about the future of the two crossings.

Cllr Desmonde made the claim during a meeting of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry joint committee on Friday. He is unhappy about consultants who have been appointed to analyse the operations and finances of the bridge and ferry in order to help inform the future of the two crossings.

The Conservative councillor told the committee that he did not consider the consultants – Aecom – to be the best firm for the job.

Officers told the committee that it had been agreed to appoint Aecom at a meeting which had been held on Wednesday which was attended by the joint chairs of the committee – one from Cornwall Council and one from Plymouth City Council.

Cllr Desmonde said that he had wanted to attend the meeting but was told that he was not allowed – and he claims he was deliberately excluded so as to be kept out of decision making on the matter.

He said: “I know Aecom very well, they are very good engineers and transport consultants, they are not business planners.”

Cllr Desmonde said it was “unacceptable” that the consultants chosen were not specialists in finance and business planning.

He said: “You need an Alan Sugar style person to come in, look at this business and tear it up. It is an individual you require. We need someone who knows how to run a business, not a corner shop or a parish council.”

Officers said that they had selected Aecom based on the brief which had previously been agreed by the committee.

But Cllr Desmonde said: “To turn around and say this is what we asked for is untrue, it is a misrepresentation.”

Tamar Bridge general manager David List said that he appreciated Cllr Desmonde’s point but said that Aecom were an internationally recognised company which not only had engineering expertise but had managed some of the biggest projects in the world both on the engineering and the financial side.

Committee member Mark Coker said he did not understand how the issue had got to this point when there had been meetings to discuss the proposed use of consultants.

And then Cllr Desmonde made his claims about being excluded from a key meeting held this week.

He said: “I was not invited to the meeting. They objected to me attending and I have written about that and asked for an explanation. I was denied, as the transport portfolio holder for Cornwall Council and responsible for supporting any financial backing for the bridge and ferry, to attend the meeting at the behest of the management of the two crossings and the two chairs to keep me out of the decision making of this matter.”

Cllr Coker said he was “greatly concerned” by the allegations made by Cllr Desmonde and said that in his 12 years of serving on the committee he had never encountered cabinet members from either Plymouth or Cornwall being excluded from any meetings.

He said: “If you claim that you were not invited and not allowed to have any say as cabinet member from Cornwall that is a serious allegation.”

Cllr Coker said that there should be an investigation and answers provided to the committee on what had happened.

He said that if there was not any action taken on the claims then he would “pack up his bags and go”.

The committee voted and agreed that a meeting should take place between the joint chairs of the committee, the Cabinet members and relevant officers from both councils to consider the alleged exclusion of Cabinet members from a meeting.