GHA Coaches directors disqualified over bus firm collapse

The brothers behind the firm, Gareth and Arwyn Lloyd-Davies, were found to have had a "catalogue of management failures" before the firm collapsed in July.

The coach company, which had routes across Shropshire and in Mid and North Wales, went into administration with the loss of 320 jobs. A total of 11 routes were left without service.

The inquiry, held yesterday, heard the state of the fleet was so bad that a wheel fell off a bus carrying schoolchildren that hadn't been serviced or maintained for 14 weeks.

Speaking at Welshpool Town Hall yesterday, vehicle examiner Mark Williams for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said: "There have been two separate wheel loss incidents, neither of which have been reported to the DVSA. I feel that passenger safety is not of paramount importance to the company and they have been found wanting in many areas.

"It is clear from the prohibition notices issued that there are shortcomings in the maintenance system leading to concern over the ability of the operator to maintain their vehicles in a fit and roadworthy condition."

The Lloyd-Davies brothers told the inquiry they were in no position to challenge allegations because company paperwork had been handed over to the administrators.

Nick Jones, traffic commissioner for Wales and the West Midlands, opened the inquiry into the public service vehicle operator licences held by the company. He told the inquiry there were a number of issues that led to the appearance of there being "no control".

He said: "For the last few months of its operation, it appears that buses were not running on time which suggests there was no control and bills were not being paid, resulting in issues of maintaining the vehicles properly, which goes to the heart of road safety and fair competition. The serious aspect of this is a lack of notification to me of your financial difficulties; there was a clear duty on you to do so which is set out in legislation."

Mr Jones will look at the running of the company, and decide whether any further action needs to be taken following its collapse.

The company held two licences authorising the use of 146 vehicles in Wales and 80 in the north west of England.

The inquiry was also asked to consider bus monitoring exercises carried out by Bus Users Cymru that had revealed occasional "no shows" between Wrexham and Llangollen and buses arriving a minute early on the Ellesmere to Shrewsbury route.

More than 300 employees were told the firm was closing by text message.