School coaches failed to arrive
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■ NDON COACH operator Glen Valley Coaches Ltd is not fit to hold blic service vehicle licences, decided the Metropolitan Traffic mmissioners. They heard that coaches booked for school trips d failed to turn up and that money had been repaid to the schools ncerned by cheques that were not honoured.
3Ien Valley failed to appear, 3 Peregrine Lavington, for the sociation of Head Teachers, Id that eight schools in ghton had booked with an as;late, A. C. Coaches, and had d a total of £1,398.50. The }s concerned had to be carried t by other operators and the roots were repaid by Glen Valby cheques signed by a Mr Margo. These were returned the various banks endorsed :fer to drawer". Mr Lavington argued that the company had clearly taken on contracts it could not complete, there was a lot of money outstanding and it was not a suitable operator.
Similar evidence was given concerning two schools in inner London which were owed a total of £280.
For the Greater London Council, Michael Airey said A. C. Coaches had not operated for long in London, moving to Brighton after failing to get on the GLC list of approved operators.
Revoking the company's four psv licences, Commissioners' chairman, Anthony Robertson, said three companies appeared to be involved — Glen Valley, A. C. Coaches Ltd, which had not held any psv licences since May, and A. C. Coaches (Brighton) Ltd, whose application for a psv operator's licence had been refused in June by the South Eastern Commissioners.
The chairman said it was a very sad saga and a stop had to be put to such activities. It seemed that the school, through its effort to obtain the least expensive trips for its children, appeared to have been easy victims.
The Commissioners hoped that in future schools could be prevented in some way from being exposed to such problems.
An operator whose licences had been revoked on such grounds could hardly be held to be of good repute, and he warned that it was a matter that would be taken into consideration if any of the people concerned with the three companies were involved in any future application for psv 0-licences.