'Fingers crossed' on fate of bus firm after court case

“The offence that the company committed is deemed as very severe within the transport sector. the fact that the records are not straight could lead to many other complications and illegalities, hence why action has been taken against the license owner.

I would be quite happy to see Ausden Clarke Disbanded, provided that the drivers find new jobs or someone takes the action to help make sure they keep their jobs. If the company has their license revoked it will mean about 50 odd routes (rough calculation of county AND city contracts) which would then be freed up for other local operators to step in and take over. that would increase the demand for local drivers and thus, hopefully, those drivers will still have a job.

I know many of the individuals behind the Private bus hire companies like Ausden Clarke and I have to say that apart from one that I am suspicious about, none of them do anything wrong. the buses are in fantastic condition, 95% of the companies have a great safety record, have paperwork all in order and do all the right things.

Ausden clarke isn't a dodgy company as a whole, it is just the individuals behind the illegal act who have caused this situation. The only reason that this might mean the business closes up is simply because of how the legislation is. if that company were to continue then a non offending person would have to apply for the license and get everything swapped over to the names and details of a new management team. that in itself would take months.

Yes it is sad and unfortunate and it might be a very Dire situation, I understand and appreciate all the views on this and have taken them on board, but I still feel the company should be disbanded to send out that message to other operators, not just in our county, but also elsewhere, that meddling with paperwork and important things can be a very costly thing to do.

Bruce,

Leicester better bus campaign.”

“Part of the defence was "the business compares favourably to any other privately-owned coach company." That's saying many other companies are worse! If that's the case then firm action is required and an example made. Also those that let out public contracts ap-pear to believe this removes responsibility from them. Sorry but they still have a both a legal and moral obligation toward those that use the contracted out services and any ef-fected by them. I wonder how understanding the public would be if this had come to light after a serious accident causing death. I am sure the council as dismissed its own employees for falling foul of the law before now. So why is it hoping to be able to continue letting a public contract to a contractor that as broken the law.”

“Dear graydjames It's the same thing no Licence no jobs for the drivers like I said, make the company give all paper work to the council who if they wanted could check it.”

“I must say I am pretty amazed at the distribution of red and green votes on this page. I find myself deeply suspicious about the voting here. It seems entirely uncharacteristic of the normal views expressed on these pages.

Jimbo has the wrong end of the stick. The council are not proposing to remove their licences - far from it, in fact, as they seem entirley sanguine about, indeed willing in, allowing this company to continue. The issue is whether the Department of Transport removes their operators licence.

I quite appreciate that people will have different views, but the voting expressed here indicates an extreme bias of view which is surprising to say the least and I suspect an infiltration of Ausden Clark supporters.”

“Would the councillor be happy for their children to travel on a vehicle where the safety documents have been forged?

Although there is no suggestion that the vehicles were "anything other than perfectly road worthy" there is no evidence that they were roadworthy either.

Rather than hoping that the licences will be granted (and saving the council extra work) they should be proactively contacting other providers now and finding alternative vehicles.

It is a ridiculous stance that the councillor is taking”

“The Directors of this company have been very silly in what they have done, but they have been taken to court and paid the price, I see no reason to take the contract from them and put a lot of Innocence people namely the drivers out of work, and put the school runs in to utter chaos, all the council need to do is make this company give its books yearly to an independent Accountants for scrutiny to check all is well, they have been fined let us hope they have learned there lesson.”

“Jagomeister - only the dates of the inspections were forged the buses were all inspected and safe but not on the dates the paperwork was filled in, buses were not available for inspections on their due dates (often being on continental runs) so the were inspected before they left then the paperwork filled in on the due dates - its more the inflexibility of the inspection regime that's at fault than some one running dodgy buses.”

“If as, Leslie Pendleton explained, there was no suggestion that the vehicles were "anything other than perfectly road worthy", it makes one wonder why paperwork was being falsified by the bus company owner?

And if they do manage to find 35 buses, can the council re-assure parents that their condition will be 100% roadworthy, as school buses tend to be those on their last lap of service before scrapping. There will be a number of Plan B options, but those would involve the main bus operators and it would be necessary to make it financially worth their while - on the basis they had drivers.”

“Hold the phone. Forging safety records. Now the council are keeping fingers crossed so they can continue using this corrupt provider and screw the safety of the children. Genius!”

“Always a danger when you put all your eggs into one basket.”