Speedwellbus of Hyde has become the latest Greater Manchester independent operator to hit the rocks after it ceased trading last week – two months before its O-licence was due to be revoked.
According to Notices & Proceedings (N&P) dated January 6, 2012, the existing Speedwell O-licence is due to be revoked from 2359hrs on March 31, 2012.
This follows a Public Inquiry (PI) on September 27, 2011, which lists director as Mr Jack Hampson. The firm was called to a PI after withdrawing service S50 between Ashton and Mossley in April 2011 without giving the statutory 56 days notice. The firm was fined £5,600 for not operating a registered service after having been refused a “short notice cancellation”. The traffic commissioner concerned stated she was not satisfied that Speedwell had shown a reasonable excuse for the cancellation; that to find “reasonable excuse” would be unfair to bus operators who operated within the rules; and that she did not want to risk setting a precedent which would allow any operator who had lost money to cancel services at short notice without appropriate arrangements being made.
However, the same issue of N&P contains a new application for a 20-vehicle O-licence from Messrs. Jack Hampson and Mr David Whyatt, trading as Speedwell Travel Services and lists its Transport Manager(s) as Paul Derek Banham and Jack Hampson.
According to its website, the current company was set up in 2002, the team behind Speedwellbus having operated bus services in Glossopdale and Tameside for around 20 years.
