Two MPs today called for an investigation into how public funds were spent on the £11.5 million Transperience discovery park.

Gerry Sutcliffe, Bradford South MP, said he did not want a "witch hunt" but wanted to reveal why Transperience failed and what lessons could be learned from the episode.

He has been backed by Keighley MP Ann Cryer and the move comes barely a week after the bus museum site was sold for £1 million to Ogden Properties Ltd.

The museum attracted an £8.3 million Department of Environment grant to help with its construction but went into the hands of receivers Coopers & Lybrand earlier this year.

Ogdens have not revealed what its plans are for the 16-acre site and the race is on to keep the museum's historic collection of Bradford buses in the district.

Mr Sutcliffe said: "Obviously they had all sorts of problems and I think there needs to be a review of what went wrong and how it went wrong in terms of public money and how it was used.

"People went into it for all the right reasons but it didn't go as planned. It's not a witch hunt but where the difficulty is why what was perceived to be and should have been a successful venture turned out to be such a failure."

Mr Sutcliffe said both Bradford Council and the Department of the Environment should carry out the investigation.

MP Ann Cryer said: "I do feel that the public are entitled to know what happened to all that money. It was a great idea and my husband Bob, who was Bradford South MP before Gerry, was very much behind the idea but it just went horribly wrong."

The MP added she along with the Keighley Bus Museum were in discussion with Coopers & Lybrand to try and secure the future of the bus collection.

David Sheard, chairman of the West Yorkshire Transport Trust which ran Transperience, said he was all for a full investigation.

He said: "Everybody says the £8.3 million went to Transperience but a lot of it went on clearing the site up before building even began. It is important that people learn the lessons."

Keighley Bus Museum Trust Director Graham Mitchell said he'd been asking for some sort of accountability regarding how public funds were spent by the West Yorkshire Transport Trust for two years.

Ian Greenwood, the leader of Bradford Council, said: "The trust has been a free-standing organisation for the last 12 years but if Ann and Gerry have concerns we will be happy to discuss it with them.

"It is something that needs looking into. I can understand their concerns about Transperience and we're all concerned about the destiny of the bus collection but in terms of an investigation, I don't think that there's any suggestion that any one group was in the wrong."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.