But Labor councillor David Brown said the council needed to put money on the table to show it was serious.

In December last year when council was looking at funding half of the 25 per cent funding shortfall, Cr Walters put forward a motion calling for research into what that 12.5 per cent share equated to in dollars.

That motion was lost but a second one put forward by Labor councillors, including Cr Brown, which called for the council to pay up to $350,000 a year towards the shuttle was passed.

With the recent news that the funding offered by council – and the University of Wollongong – is short by around $50,000 a year – Cr Walters said his motion would have avoided this.

“It’s a bit concerning that they went blindingly in with a sum of $350,000 when I told them on the floor we need to investigate how much this 12.5 per cent is,” Cr Walters said.

“The state was always willing to put that 75 per cent in but we didn’t know how much our 12.5 per cent was.

“Now council has to go back and discuss how much we have to give and we wouldn’t have had to do that in the first place.”

Cr Brown pointed out that his motion and not Cr Walters’ took the stance the shuttle should remain free.

He said council pledged $350,000 to show it was serious about funding the shuttle.

“We had to show our bona fides that we were upfront,” Cr Brown said.

“That we weren’t skirmishing around the edges with this, that we actually intended to pay it.

“The thought at the time was that was the number that was in the public arena and that would be enough to cover it.

“In fact we included a little bit more. From memory we thought that $333,000 might be enough so we increased it up to $350,000 just in case there were any odds and ends that needed to be put in.”