Happy Days Out of School Care, based in East Kilbride and Uddingston, has been refused a licence to continue operating by Scotland’s Traffic Commissioner due to the childcare provider having transported children on a minibus with no MOT.
Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken said she had doubts about the repute of Gillian Geddes – who runs Happy Days Out of School Care – as to whether she could be trusted to operate vehicles.
In a written decision issued after a public inquiry in Edinburgh last month, the Traffic Commissioner concluded that Mrs Geddes had seen herself as some sort of victim when government inspectors stopped her vehicles.
However, the regulator concluded that she was no victim other than the victim of her own decision to ignore the advice she’d been given to get a licence after operating unlawfully.
In one instance, a vehicle’s MOT had expired in April but it was still being used to transport children in June.
Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken remarked: “Given that her business is engaged in the transportation of children as part of its service to parents, it is to the public good and in the interests of public safety that examiners did select her vehicles and operation that day.
“Parents of children do not expect their children to be transported in a vehicle which has not had an MOT test and they expect proper licensing of business and drivers.
“This is another example of a business which to the customer will appear friendly and competent but which has been lacking in meeting road safety requirements.”
