Geordie Lad passes his gimlet eye across Friday’s Green Bus Fund winners… and discovers something odd. Omnibuses welcomes contributions
Well, after the established industry had slapped itself on its collective back on Friday when the results of the bidding for the third round of the Green Bus Fund had been announced, everybody looked at the list of winners to see what their competitors had got. And there was one name on that register that was strangely familiar, but subtly different.
You can look at the list and work it out for yourselves:
So while this is all very interesting, it does beg the question: how on earth has the DfT managed to award someone who doesn’t appear to have an O-licence the princely sum of £436,000 towards the cost of five new hybrid single decks? Perhaps in its haste to get the money spent before the turn of the financial year, they might not have been quite so thorough in checking the paperwork. However, in the DfT’s defence, I’ve seen a Green Bus Fund application form, and nowhere on it does it actually ask for an O-licence number. And, in order not to circumvent state aid rules, perhaps the DfT has to treat all applicants equally—whether actual operators or potential ones.
Presumably, there’ll be a flurry of orders placed with manufacturers before this coming Friday, deposits paid, invoices sent to the DfT for the dosh and cheques written.
Let’s hope that the DfT does some extra cheque-ing (sic) of its own before it sends the cash to what appears to be private address where you’ll find, according to one website search, a plumber!
Geordie Lad – eating a Gregg’s pasty
23 comments:
"Tyne & Wear (Omni?)Bus Company – 5 single-decked hybrid electric buses" - its amazing what you can do with a blue & white Bristol LH thesedays....
There is a Tyne & Wear Omnibus Co.Ltd. registered at Companies House, albeit dormant.
Registered address:
c/o Stagecoach Services Ltd
Daw Bank
Stockport
Cheshire
SK3 0DU
This was originally the Trimdon subsidiary with the blue and white Bristol LHs, acquired by Caldaire Holdings (United Auto), and resold on the same day to Busways Travel Services if I recall correctly!
Will Geordie Lad be reducing his consumption of Gregg's pasties, in the light of the recently announced VAT increase? Is this the takeaway industry's equivalent of BSOG reductions?
Was it not busways who sold to northern general the same day.
If an OLN was required there's several organisations in the list which wouldn't qualify.
Also odd is the entry for Holsworthy Ltd - this is Beacon Coaches but they don't operate anywhere near Dawlish!
There was a Tyne & Wear Bus Co. Ltd, incorporated in July 2010 but wound up a couple of weeks ago, 6 March 2012, seemingly never to have traded.
The plumber at that address though is in New South Wales surely? Something of a red herring methinks!
The Stagecoach company with that name was only incorporated in 1993, so it's merely a dormant one protecting the name by the look of it.
Presumably the amount of each grant does not have a direct correlation to the number of buses involved. If it is showing the actual vehicle cost it would seem some operators are getting a free fleet of very expensive buses.
The DfT were only offering up to eighty per cent of the additional cost of a hybrid bus over its diesel equivalent, up to a maximum of £5 million per organisation. Which explains why the TfL grant was £5 M; and if you add up all the Arriva bids, it totals just under £5 mill. The highest grant per bus seems to be the TfGM award!
Beacon Bus operate the Dawlish Town Service - a two vehicle operation.
It can't be Stagecoach as adding Tyne & Wear Bus Co to the two Stagecoach subsidiaries takes us over the £5m mark by about £65k.
Or, more accurately, if it IS Stagecoach, someone has done their sums wrong...
Stagecoach never mentioned any new buses in the North East on its Green Bus Fund press release, so I think it is unlikely to be them.
well sir know all with your greggs pasty as YOU are so smart you will know that mybe the o licence is in the owners name and not the companys name and also that it mybe a sole trader rather than a ltd company a company can hide its self away from the public with little or NO paper trail .look at richard branson in his early days . just caue its a bus company doesnt mean it isnt there and i quite look foward to 5 new hybrids coming to the northeast
the grant amount only covers 80% of the hybrid eqpt not 80% of the actual bus its self so the operator has to find the other £150.000 himself
... and I can't see many sole traders being able to do that!
Touched a nerve!
VOSA search
Paul McHugh
application in progress
PB1108600
Tyne & Wear bus company
25 BOWMAN PLACE,
SOUTH SHIELDS,
NE33 5RS,
No operating centres found.
No Transport Manager listed "as a result of records being updated following EU Regulation changes".
Residential address, judging by Google Streetview
There was more in N&P:
Operating Centre: UNIT 1, CHARLES TAYLOR FACTORY, TEMPLETOWN SOUTH SHIELDS NE33 5SE Authorisation:4 Vehicle(s). Transport Manager(s): PAUL MICHAEL ATHERTON
Yes, indeed, TWOC was sold to GNE who then resold it to Busways on the same day. Memory is fallible!
Oh dear Anonymous, did Geordie Lad touch a nerve? As others have pointed out, it could be difficult for a company without an O-license to find the capital for brand new hybrid single deckers so the application asks more questions than it answers.
Obviously someone small has won a few Nexus tenders, in the same way Gateshead Taxis did last year.
... but surely Nexus don't award tenders to people who don't have O-licences? Otherwise how could they ever have any confidence in the people to whom they award tenders?
Anonymous @1906 wrote
"well sir know all with your greggs pasty as YOU are so smart you will know that mybe the o licence is in the owners name and not the companys name and also that it mybe a sole trader rather than a ltd company"
I don't know "Geordie Lad" but he does seem at least smart enough to be able to use proper spelling, capitilisation and punctuation . . . unlike yourself.
"a company can hide its self away from the public with little or NO paper trail .look at richard branson in his early days . just caue its a bus company doesnt mean it isnt there and i quite look foward to 5 new hybrids coming to the northeast"
Any company that is "hiding itself away from the public" is either ashamed of itself or trying to hide something then isn't it . . .
Reporting on the Green Bus Fund awards, route one magazine is reporting:
"One oddity is the award to
the Tyne & Wear Bus Company
- whose sole director is Paul
McHugh, and which was
dissolved on 6 March. It does not
hold an O-Licence and routeone
understands that the DfT has
started an investigation into the
application. In a statement it
said: “It would not be appropriate
to discuss the circumstances
of individual cases. However,
the DfT confirms that it would
not expect to pay money to an
operator under the GBF unless
and until they held a valid
operator’s licence.”"
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