Counties block service
Page 16
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• Clwyd and Gwynedd County Councils have convinced North Western Traffic Commissioner Roy Hutchings that a proposed new bus service by Alpine Travel of Llanrwst would interfere with the smooth transition to deregulation.
The county councils opposed the company's application for a local service between Conwy and Old Colwyn at hourly intervals on weekdays throughout the year (CM, May 24).
Refusing the application in a written decision, Hutchings said that Crosville Motor Services estimated it would lose £32,500 of revenue to the new service.
If Crosville suffered any loss of revenue, it could either seek additional revenue support or withdraw unremunerative services and leave gaps in the network.
Any additional allocation to that presently made by the counties for revenue support is unlikely in view of the constraints on local authority spending.
An additional allocation of revenue support could be made out of funds already allocated to contractual services after October 26, for that would mean fewer services could be provided under contract in the immediate post-deregulation period.
Whichever course of action is adopted will disrupt the arrangements made by Clwyd and Gwynedd with a view to achieving a satisfactory transition to deregulation. In those circumstances Hutchings had no option but to refuse the application.