SCOTLAND'S largest bus-operating company has been plunged into crisis after the head of its Glasgow division went on indefinite gardening leave in a suspected row over service cuts.
Ronnie Park, managing director of First Glasgow, which runs bus services in Greater Glasgow, is understood to be taking a leave of absence. It is unclear if or when he will return to the post. A senior manager from First's Aberdeen division is understood to have been appointed temporarily in his place.
Mr Park took the post in 2010 after serving for three and a half years as operations director and deputy managing director. It is understood he was unhappy about deep cuts that First's senior management expected him to implement.
One industry source told The Herald there were fears the company would now bring in a "heavy-hitter" willing to slash jobs and services.
The insider said: "[Ronnie Park has] basically been put out to pasture. It's been a long time coming. He's not exactly happy about having to make the cuts that management want him to, but the concern is now that they'll get in some kind of heavy-hitter willing to get rid of the routes that aren't making as much money as they'd like.
"You've got to think that it's not good news around the corner."
It follows warnings that bus firms could be forced out of business by the combined pressures of providing the Concessionary Travel Scheme, which allows over-60s and the disabled to travel by bus for free, and the ballooning cost of fuel and other overheads.
In January, it emerged there was an estimated £15 million shortfall in the amount of public money available to reimburse operators for running the flagship scheme. Ralph Roberts, managing director of McGill's, warned that bus companies would be forced to cut services to save money. Yet ministers have fought off suggestions that access to it should be restricted.
A spokesman for First Group said: "Ronnie Park is taking some leave and operations are continuing as normal."
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