SCC fights single Scots sale
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• Efforts by Scottish Bus Group (SBG) directors and employees to convince the Government to sell the group to them have been undermined by the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC). In a letter to the Scottish Secretary of State, SCC Chairman Barbara Kelly says: "The Scottish Bus Group should not be sold off as a single concern, and I urge Malcolm Rifkind to split it into smaller units when it is privatised."
The council, which is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, argues that the SBG is practically a monopoly in many parts of Scotland, and provides nearly half of all Scotland's bus services. "As a single private company no longer owned by a government committed to competition it would be able to eliminate many competitors. The likely results would be fewer services and higher prices," says SCC.
John Whittle of the Scottish Bus Group agrees that the consumer is of paramount importance: "We are 100% with the Consumer Council on the question of protecting the consumers' interests. We are not, as the council says we are, a monopoly. How can we be when we run less than half Scotland's bus services? Scottish independents have proved themselves as strong contenders. Indeed they are enjoying a faster rate of growth than their equivalent south of the border," he says.
Whittle emphasises the need for a large and healthy group which can continue to run marginal routes: "If you function as a large unit you are in a position to protect more services," he maintains.
The Transport and General Workers' Union, however, says it is disappointed by the SCC's call: "Fragmentation of the group will not improve consumer's choice, nor will it assist in holding down prices," says Charles Ridley of the TGWU in Edinburgh.
Ridley agrees with SBG that a strong employee-owned bus company of this size will help maintain routes which might otherwise be too marginal to survive if owned by a smaller concern.
"One wonders where the SCC's loyalty lies", adds Ridley darkly.