Bath and North East Somerset Council has been deliberately excluded from discussions about setting up a new bus to serve its area, a councillor has claimed.

In February, a new bus to serve the village of Paulton was announced, set up by Paulton Parish Council and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) under its new WESTlocal scheme to allow local communities to set up their own bus services. But at a WECA scrutiny panel on Monday, councillors from Bath and North East Somerset Council said that they had been kept in the dark about the plan and it had cost them the opportunity to put on a better bus.

Deputy leader of the council, Sarah Warren (Bathavon North, Liberal Democrat), said: "We are told that combined authority officers were instructed not to share any details of the Paulton bid with B&NES officers or councillors or with neighbouring communities regarding the proposed bus or its route until the press announcement on February 20, although design had been underway with Paulton Parish Council for the previous seven months.

"This failure to collaborate means the chance of a commercially viable service serving the same and more communities has just been lost."

Alison Streatfeild-James (Saltford, Liberal Democrat) who is one of Bath and North East Somerset Council's representatives on the WECA scrutiny panel said: "The careful work that had been taking place in relation to installing a service in that which would have covered further communities which are now not covered, which would have involved a viable commercial bus service with a commercial operator, cannot go ahead because this other bus route is going to take so many of the potential customers."

Asked by Ms Streatfeild-James if he or his office had ordered WECA officers not to tell anyone at Bath and North East Somerset Council about the plan, Mr Norris said: "How would I know? I wouldn't know what officers are saying to anybody, would I?

"They are doing their job. They should be doing things properly. You should have raised this with me at the time if you had a concern."

He said it was "fantastic" Paulton had come up with a new bus route and that councillors concerned their areas would not be served should speak to him or WECA officers. Ms Streatfeild-James said: "Relevant councillors who do know about this have been desperately trying to talk to you about this for the past year."

Paulton's new bus is planned to run to Radstock in one direction and Odd Down Park and Ride on the edge of Bath in the other. But Bath and North East Somerset Council owns and operates the park and ride, and said they had not been told about this before it was announced in the press.

Ms Warren warned: "That has been publicised as the terminus of the new bus route with no thought given as to legal or logistical issues this might present. It's not yet clear whether this service can in fact be realised as it has been publicised."

Mr Norris announced the new bus — which is expected to begin in April — at a launch in Paulton in February. Bath and North East Somerset Councillors Grant Johnson and Liz Hardman (both Paulton, Labour) worked on the bid, but in their capacity as independent members of Paulton Parish Council.

The bus is the first to be funded through WECA's WESTlocal scheme, which allows community groups such as parish councils to come up with their own bus routes and bid for the funding to put them on. Mr Norris said at the launch: "I'm excited that this is about giving power to the community. They rightly are concerned about the bus services and this is a really good way for them to come up with a way to meet their needs."

But speaking at the scrutiny panel on Monday, Ms Warren warned: "We believe our expert bus officers have a better overview of the needs of the wider community and can design a better service for all that will provide better value for money."

The new bus partially replicates the route of the village's beloved 82 bus. It, along with almost all publicly-subsidised buses in rural North East Somerset, was cut last year after a row between Bath and North East Somerset Council and WECA about whose responsibility it was to fund them.