Surviving council owned bus companies in 2016

[jammy36]

I see the local newspaper, the Advertiser, is running a story suggesting that SBC are looking to sell Thamesdown Transport. The paper is reporting the Go-Ahead group as being an interested suitor. May just be local paper speculation, local rags being perhaps best treated with caution, but nevertheless one to watch. Hopefully this won't be something that drags on and on, as I am sure such speculation must be unsettling for staff.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Lancashire, Yorkshire, South Wales..... there were dozens of routes jointly operated by the municipals through to the late 1960s. I believe the Newport to Cardiff route is still jointly operated by their respective boroughs, as it has been for decades. With the arm's length arrangements now pertaining, councillors take a back seat anyway. Mayors, of course, are another matter, for those areas unfortunate enough to be governed by this undemocratic system.

Sorry, sloppy wording by myself. I meant actual merging of companies rather than joint working of services which is historic - including joint tram workings in the case of Accrington (Hyndburn), Haslingden and Rawtenstall (Rossendale). Nowadays, due to 'austerity' councils are sharing lots of services, including as high as chief officers but prior to 'austerity' it was generally a 'no go' topic in local government. You keep your own buses, bin lorries and everything in your own colours with your own council name on it. Shows what a good council you are delivering stuff for people. Clearly Burnley and Pendle merged at some point, as did Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Ramsbottom, back in 1968 I think, not sure how voluntary it was though.

 

[kevjs]

Sorry, sloppy wording by myself. I meant actual merging of companies rather than joint working of services which is historic - including joint tram workings in the case of Accrington (Hyndburn), Haslingden and Rawtenstall (Rossendale). Nowadays, due to 'austerity' councils are sharing lots of services, including as high as chief officers but prior to 'austerity' it was generally a 'no go' topic in local government. You keep your own buses, bin lorries and everything in your own colours with your own council name on it. Shows what a good council you are delivering stuff for people. Clearly Burnley and Pendle merged at some point, as did Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Ramsbottom, back in 1968 I think, not sure how voluntary it was though.

I don't quite understand how some of the mergers are supposed to work - Rushcliffe and Charnwood sharing Bin Lorries, yeah that makes sense (they are right next to one another in the East Midlands) - Nottinghamshire and Cornwall sharing road maintenance - eh?!

 

[6Gman]

one of the great lost opportunities...........I've always wondered what would have happened if the Lancashire Municipal councils had got together and amalgamated their operations. Barrow, Lancaster, Preston, Blackpool, Fylde, Blackburn, Hyndburn, Rossendale (and did Burnley have a fleet?)
If operated as a coherent whole they could have seen off the predations by Stagecoach. Of course that would have required giving the town councillors brain transplants to achieve

Why would councillors need brain transplants? I've met many councillors. They all had brains.

A minority didn't always make full use of them.

 

[philthetube]

Why would councillors need brain transplants? I've met many councillors. They all had brains.

A minority didn't always make full use of them.

In order to make decisions based on sense rather than politics and election results.

 

[6Gman]

In order to make decisions based on sense rather than politics and election results.

Well, if they ignore election results they won't be councillors for much longer!

And you'll never achieve agreement on what constitutes "sense" in this context.

 

[radamfi]

Firstly that bus operators should not be entitled to compensation in areas where Bus Franchising is brought in as their operations are not being taken away from them and they are perfectly free to bid for the new franchises.

Is there a link for this?

TheGrandWazoo has always insisted that compensation would be required. His view is that the incumbent operators not only own vehicles and depots, but they also own "goodwill" and the right to trade. Implementation of franchising would remove this, and so the value of the business would be dramatically reduced.

 

[WatcherZero]

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmtrans/611/611.pdf

Government response to the report has been to say that they don't feel the need to allow municipals because no authority has asked for permission to set one up but they may be forced to allow it anyway if the Bill is amended in Parliament.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Is there a link for this?

TheGrandWazoo has always insisted that compensation would be required. His view is that the incumbent operators not only own vehicles and depots, but they also own "goodwill" and the right to trade. Implementation of franchising would remove this, and so the value of the business would be dramatically reduced.

Just to correct you slightly - it was my opinion that it was wrong to embark on backdoor re-nationalisation without compensating businesses that had bought those firms in good faith.

The analogy that I used at the time was the selling off of council houses. People bought them at a discount and then resold them etc. Could you then simply take them off them but say it "it's ok - you might have the chance to rent it?"

 

[317 forever]

I see the local newspaper, the Advertiser, is running a story suggesting that SBC are looking to sell Thamesdown Transport. The paper is reporting the Go-Ahead group as being an interested suitor. May just be local paper speculation, local rags being perhaps best treated with caution, but nevertheless one to watch. Hopefully this won't be something that drags on and on, as I am sure such speculation must be unsettling for staff.

I have seen a couple of references to this.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/...ouncil_looking_to_sell_Thamesdown_Transport_/
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/15029042.Is_the_council_looking_to_sell_Thamesdown_Transport_/