School trip coach angers parents
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PARENTS complained last week about the state of a coach sent on a school trip to Italy when Excelsior Coachways (Telford) appeared at disciplinary proceedings before the West Midlands Traffic Commissioners.
The Commissioners reduced the number of vehicles authorised on the company's psv operator's licence from nine to three and prematurely terminated it to expire a year early in October this year.
A vehicle examiner said that he had imposed a prohibition for four items on a coach in Telford bus station following a phone complaint.
Parents from Fleet in Hampshire told the Commissioners that the coaCh that arrived to pick up their children had a completely bald spare tyre. The coach was dirty and they complained about the manner in which their complaints were received by the driver and the company.
Gill Murray, a teacher who accompanied the trip, said the drivers did not seem to know where the destination was or what route to take. She complained of broken seats and of children falling to the floor when the coach braked.
Managing director Ronald Burns said that instructions had been given to a tyre company to replace all four back tyres, one of which was illegal.
He felt the suggestion that the drivers did not know where they were going might he the result of banter or the c.1.5ivers trying to establish a happy relationship with the.. party.