Wrexham bus passengers could suffer a loss of service for the second time this year after the council awarded contracts to a company whose directors have been banned from operating buses.
The former GHA Coaches services were awarded to RJ's of Wem, a company run by ex-GHA Coaches directors.
GHA went bankrupt in July. In September, Welsh traffic commissioner Nick Jones banned its directors from operating buses. They had also become directors of RJ’s of Wem, whose operating licence MrJones has now revoked with effect from 19 December.
Llyr Gruffydd AM said the licence revocation wouldn’t have been a surprise, given GHA Coaches’ history: ‘So where were due diligence and financial standing checks when the local authority issued the contract to RJ’s of Wem?’
Welsh infrastructure minister Ken Skates said Wrexham Council would be ‘responsible for assessing local circumstances and priorities, including any service that can be provided to those residents who will now be left without a service, potentially, for a period following 19 December’.
A Wrexham council spokeswoman said last summer’s emergency tenders had drawn limited interest from the market, and Mr Jones had approved the replacement contracts.
‘There will now be some inevitable disruption to some services. We have immediately repeated our tendering process,’ she said.
Tenders for replacements for RJ’s of Wem services are due in within a week.
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