First takeover brings cut-price rentals for buses

09 August 2007

The First Group is renting buses at £1 a month from Chester City Council – the former owner of a bus company it recently took over.

Chester City Council, which sold Chester Bus to the group, has confirmed that First is paying just £1 a month to rent some double-decker buses which were formally part of the city council’s fleet. But the authority has stressed only a handful of the fleet of buses being hired to First are rented out at a knockdown price.

Director of resources, Jim Cassin, said First Group had not wanted to take over the fleet of around 80 buses when it purchased Chester Bus from the council, but it had found itself short of vehicles. He said the council had agreed to let First take up to 60 buses on a short-term basis.

Most of the vehicles were still on external lease, and First had agreed to meet all these payments, but there were others that would only warrant a token payment, and First had been charged £1. ‘There are only a relatively small number of these, and they really are clapped out,’ said Mr Cassin. The entire rental agreement was only short term until First took delivery of its new buses, he added.

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