A 20-YEAR-OLD bus firm will stay on the road after winning an appeal against a ruling that it should be stripped of its licence amid questions over its financial standing.
Ian Cunningham, director of Glasgow-based City Sprinter, said he was delighted after an appeal tribunal in Edinburgh took less than three minutes to throw out the original ruling by the Deputy Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, bringing to an end a three-month fight to save the company.
Mr Cunningham said the battle had cost the business more than £7000 in legal fees and caused uncertainty for staff and passengers.
He said: "You have the public wondering to buy a £10 season ticket because they don't know whether there's going to be a bus to catch. It has a desperate effect and a very adverse effect economically and personally - for us and the drivers and their families who are worried about their jobs.
"We're big boys and we'll take it on the chin and we will grow stronger out of the whole thing."
The Herald revealed in October that the Sprinter was to be stripped of its licence after the company failed to provide evidence to the Traffic Commissioner of "appropriate financial standing" following a public inquiry into the operator.
However, it is understood that documents were supplied, but that they were delivered one day late - within 15 days instead of the specified 14-day timetable.
An appeal was lodged and City Sprinter was allowed to continue operating pending the outcome of the appeal, which was heard in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article