(19/03/2018 17:02)Nwales Bus Wrote:  New Registrtration on vosa website

Registration number PC1090231/139
Licence Number PC1090231
Variation number 0
Status Registered
Service number. 270
Service type Normal Stopping
Start point Parrs Wood, Kingsway, East Didsbury, Manchester
Finish point Altrincham Interchange
Via
Date received 14 Mar 2018
Effective date 08 Apr 2018
End date
Supported by subsidies? Yes
Local authorities covered by route Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM)
TAOs covered by route North West of England

Quote:To all our Customers and passengers.



Services may be retained but 8 week gap. Councillors please think again.



D & G Bus Ltd feel it is important to inform our passengers with regard to the recent (last eight months or so) Bus Review which has been completed within Staffordshire by Staffordshire County Council. As you may know the Council, like many others within the UK is ‘strapped for cash’; and the Council needed to make significant budget cuts from 1st April 2018. As part of the process the Council carried out a review of Bus Services across the County and from the 1st April 2018 some routes will face cuts or disappear altogether. D&G has been very supportive of the Councils actions which, to date, have been well thought through.



As a business we understand that the Council needs to operate within its financial constraints and that savings needed to be made. However, on Friday 16th March 2018 Staffordshire County Council have issued a relatively small tender - which is good news for D & G Bus Ltd as we may have more work. But there is always a but! Because the savings being made by Staffordshire are slightly better than they anticipated (presumably because of cuts to services on Saturdays and better prices from Bus Operators than they anticipated) they now have some money left to re-instate some of the bus services which were being cut. Great news we hear you say. Yes it is, well nearly! Because of the bizarre procurement rules operated by the Council, whilst ‘some’ of these services may be retained there will be an eight week gap between when the services cease on the 1st April 2018 and may re-start on the 4th June 2018.



Perhaps Councillors do not realise that people rely on buses, and to have an 8 week gap will cause considerable inconvenience and distress. Why not extend the existing contracts to cover the gap and ensure that the maximum number of passengers are retained for the new services, which will help their longer term survival.



D & G Bus contacted Staffordshire County Council to ask if they could review the timing to ensure that there would be no gap in service we were told that: “The overall contract value mandates the council to procure in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These state a mandatory minimum time frame at which we have to advertise for. As this is a single stage invitation to tender (which has to advertise in Europe as well as the UK) we have no foresight as to who will bid and therefore the process does not unfortunately allow us to determine and agree alternative submission dates.”



We do not agree with the above. Bus Operators can provide tender prices quickly; the County can review and compare the prices; and then they can decide whether or not they can afford to retain the services or some of the services. We accept that not all the routes on the list will benefit from a reprieve, but some might, and there is no reason why any gap in provision is required. Staffordshire Councillors have turned what is a good news story into something else.



The routes under consideration which affect D&G Bus and our passengers are:

• 12 Longton – Barlaston

• 93 Biddulph Moor – Pennine Way



Common sense should prevail, not adherence to outdated rules. Please contact your local councillor and local media to make your views known.



David Reeves and Julian Peddle, Directors of D&G Bus Ltd

(07/04/2018 19:54)Metroline1511 Wrote:  I noticed on another thread people having mixed fortunes with some D&G drivers accepting GM Wayfarers but other drivers rejecting them. Provided the most up-to-date leaflet states D&G accept these tickets, they should. If management have failed to notify drivers, or have not even been notified by D&G, this is not our problem. Although unpleasant, we should just use these tickets anyway - provided valid in TfGM's publicity - and let the driver phone TfGM if they do not like it.