Blunder halts Blundred
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• The launch of Harry Blundred's Basingstoke Minibus service this week was halted by an eleventh hour decision from the South East Traffic Area to postpone it until 2 September. The delay will cost 250,000.
Basingstoke Transit had applied for an operator's licence as far back as 5 May and was advised that, subject to any objections, the licence would be granted on 20 June. Registrations for the services were sent to the Traffic Commissioner on 15 June: he told the company that these would be accepted for operation on 4 August.
The operator licence was not granted until 18 July, however, and four working days before the launch Basingstoke Transit was told by the commissioner "that the law allowed no discretion" and permission to start on 4 August should not have been given.
Blundred, who attended a press conference to publicise the launch, told reporters: "A civil servant, for once in his life, made a decision based on his judgement instead of ticking the boxes. The Traffic Area decided to give us authority to begin but more senior people moved against us.
"We all thought the 1985 Transport Act would deregulate public transport, not reregulate it," he says. "The rules are far stricter than they were before in terms of time scale and I shall be writing to the new Transport Minister Michael Portillo, asking for an urgent change in the law to allow bus companies freedom from unnecessary bureaucracy. The end result is that the people of Basingstoke will be denied for, a further period of four weeks, a choice of public transport — and for what purpose?"
The operation, when it finally takes off, will involve 15 Ford Transit chassis bodied by Mellor Coachcraft of Rochdale, with a seating capacity of 16 and standing room for four. These will operate from a new depot in Worting serving three routes initially, followed by a further two later in the year when the fleet will be aug
mented to 22 minibuses.
Basingstoke Transit minibuses will compete with existing Hampshire Bus doubledeckers and, says Blundred, may be more attractive to passengers in that the minibuses will be able to reach areas inaccessible to larger vehicles.
"Basingstoke is a new town built by planners for motorists. The bus stops are at the end of long walkways and public transport has become less and less attractive. We are taking the buses to the people."
Hampshire Bus will survive and continue comments Blundred, because "some people prefer double-deckers."