Decision

Decision for Altonian Coaches Limited T/A Transporabus (PH1089686)

Published 19 August 2024

0.1 In the Western Traffic Area

1. Written Decision of the Traffic Commissioner

2. Public Inquiry held 8 August 2024 at Bristol

2.1 Operator: Altonian Coaches Limited T/A Transporabus (PH1089686)

3. BACKGROUND

Altonian Coaches Limited is the holder of a standard international public service vehicle operator’s licence authorising the use of fifteen vehicles currently from operating centres in Parsons Street, Bedminster and Green Tree Farm, Emersons Green, both in the Bristol area. This licence started in 2009 but there was a change of ownership in February 2022 when it appears from the public record that ownership transferred from Derek Wheeler to Philip Higgs. Rhys Hand was appointed as a director and notified as a shareholder in October 2022.

Since 2022, the company has, in addition to the current operating centres, used sites in Weymouth, Poole, Southampton and Bristol Fruit Market. David Wheeler continued as transport manager following the change of ownership and the record shows he was joined by Ian Bell in January 2024.

Both Mr Hand and Mr Higgs have extensive licensing history. That of Mr Higgs has been considered elsewhere and I do not need to repeat it here. Mr Hand was sole director of Snowdonia Travel Limited which was called to public inquiry in 2019 as a result of ceasing to operate registered services without notice. A direction to pay a financial penalty of a nominal £300 to the Welsh Government was made. Despite chasing, no payment was forthcoming. The company was dissolved in 2022. Mr Hand failed to attend the inquiry but it seems he provided ten pages of written submissions.

It is unclear why this matter was not identified when Mr Hand’s appointment as a director on this licence was notified by the operator, apparently promptly, in October 2022. His involvement only appears to have come to light following a complaint and concerns about the reliability of bus services being provided to Kingston Maurward School in Dorset. Another operator made a short-notice request to take over those services and that was brought to my attention. My office wrote to Mr Hand on two occasions asking for an explanation for the failure of his former company to make the payment to the Welsh Government. No response was received and that, along with the concerns relating to the school services, was the initial trigger for this public inquiry. The case was initially listed for 27 June but then multiple further matters came to light. I summarise the issues here.

The short-notice application for Kingston Maurward School services brought to my attention adverse press coverage. From the start of that operation, there were reports of poor punctuality and buses breaking down. A report dated 12 November 2023 recorded a driver quitting mid-service. It seems her first bus had broken down and she had transferred passengers to a second bus and continued. An hour later, she stopped the bus near the operating centre and quit her job. It appears she stayed long enough for a supervisor to come to take over.

My office wrote to the transport manager in December to ask about the service operation.  The TM put the responsibility on the broker, Kura. Kura is not the bus operator and it is incumbent upon the operator to ensure that routes are properly registered and run to the registration. It seemed clear that distress was brought upon scholars by the service performance.

DVSA made me aware of a number of incidents. On 3 June 2023, DVSA encountered vehicle LX09FZR in the Poole area. The vehicle was untaxed and the tax had expired in February. The registered keeper was Manchester Bus Tours. The bus was operating a service for Altonian Coaches Ltd. It was later taxed, but only from 1 June, the back-duty going unpaid. ANPR evidence showed the vehicle in use throughout May.

I was provided with a report of an incident that had occurred in Bristol City Centre on 15 July 2023. DVSA encountered HK22RJU, a Ford Transit Minibus. The vehicle had an Altonian disc in the window. It was parked at a bus stop at 22:15. There was one passenger on board but no driver in the vehicle. The Examiners were approached by Andrew Paul Murphy who had the vehicle keys. Mr Murphy said that he wasn’t an employee of Altonian but acted as their local manager as a favour for Rhys Hand. He said that Mr Hand was at an event nearby. Mr Murphy provided his driving licence which had expired. It showed a D1 entitlement with a 101 endorsement, that is, not for hire or reward. Mr Murphy did not hold a CPC. He said he had driven the vehicle from the operating centre to the bus stop to be taken over by the driver, a commercial positioning journey. The passenger was a part of an Amazon contract and he had allowed him on board to shelter from the rain.

An Examiner downloaded the tachograph. There were numerous periods when the vehicle had been driven without a card in the head. Mr Murphy was not the holder of a digital tachograph card. Shortly after 23:00, Rhys Hand arrived. He said that the vehicle was not used to carry passengers (despite one being on board) and it was not used as part of the business (despite having a disc on display). Given the lateness of the hour and the conflicting accounts, it was agreed that Mr Hand would provide a written report of the use of the vehicle and the surrounding circumstances. Despite chasing, he never did. Mr Hand also promised to provide a report of the circumstances of the use of LX09FZR without tax but he never did that either.

On 9 September 2023, a DVSA Examiner entered Poole Docks and observed the operating centre of Altonian Coaches with authority for 10 vehicles. Fourteen were present. One was out of scope and another SORN and apparently used as a cleaning store. Of the twelve seemingly active vehicles, 9 had Altonian discs and 3 displayed discs in the name of Manchester Bus Tours.

I received a report from Dorset Police Roads Policing Team. I was told of an incident which took place on 4 January 2024. An officer has been on duty and called to reports of an obstruction. He attended the site, the A354 Monkton Hill, Dorchester, a publicly adopted single carriageway road with a national speed limit. The carriageway is divided by a double white line with a chevroned area and an adjacent footway about three feet wide. It was 8:30 on the January evening and there was no street lighting with over-hanging, dense foliage throughout.

The officer found a red Scania double-deck bus, LX09FZR, positioned both on the footway and in the carriageway. The gap to the left of the vehicle on the footpath was 80cm, and the remaining carriageway width not more than two metres meaning that vehicles would have to cross  a double-white line to pass. Both the road and the vehicle were completely unlit. The was no-one anywhere to be seen. The officer deployed emergency traffic management. Due to the danger posed by the vehicle and unable to make contact with the company, the officer arranged for its removal to a pound.

Around mid-July 2024, I became aware of reports that the company was ceasing to operate services. Gloucester County Council wrote to me on 19 July to tell me that Altonian had been operating a supported service 60 since the spring. On Wednesday 10 July, the Council had become aware of social media reports that the company had closed. Review of BODS data showed the service still operating. They made contact with Rhys Hand who said he had left the business but that it was still operational. Both Philip Higgs and Rhys Hand confirmed by email on 12 July that the service was still operating. On 13 July, the Council became aware that the operator had ceased trading and had tried to make arrangements for the service to be covered by another operator but Gloucester County Council contracts do not permit sub-contracting.

The operator also had a number of services registered directly with West of England Combined Authority (WECA). WECA wrote to my office on 19 July to confirm that they had taken the decision simply to cancel the registrations as the services were clearly no longer operational. They had received no notice and no request to cancel.

Both transport managers resigned.

These reported shortcomings caused me to call the operator to public inquiry.

4. THE PUBLIC INQUIRY

Philip Higgs attended the inquiry represented by Jeremy Woodcraft, solicitor. A draft written statement was provided in advance along with some up-to-date financial information. Proceedings were recorded and I do not recount the full evidence here.

Mr Hand failed to attend the inquiry. He notified my office on 5 August that he planned not to do so as he was no longer an officer of the company. My office wrote back promptly reminding Mr Hand that his personal disqualification from holding an operator’s licence was still at issue and requesting his permission to share his written submissions with the inquiry failing which I could take no account of them. He granted that permission.

Finances were considered in private. They relied upon an invoice factoring schedule which was not available so financial standing was not demonstrably met.

4.1 Opening submissions

The current position was an ongoing moving situation. Much of the background was financial in nature and Mr Woodcraft asked that to be heard in private, along with other matters that might lead to litigation in the future. I reminded myself that I am quite constrained by Regulation 7 of the Public Service Vehicles (Traffic Commissioners: Publications and Inquiries) Regulations SI 1986/2009 which allowed me to hear in private only such matters as “relates to the financial position of any person” which contrasts with the position on a goods vehicle inquiry where I have far more freedom. I also considered it in the public interest for as much as possible to be heard in the public forum. I am grateful to Mr Woodcraft for proceeding with great care in such a way as to balance the financial interests of relevant persons with the public interest for transparency.  

4.2 The evidence of Rhys Hand

I read to the record Mr Hand’s written statement as follows:

For the attention of Kevin Rooney, Traffic Commissioner for the Western Traffic Area

Re: PH1089686 Altonian Coaches Ltd

Dear Sir

I am aware of the imminent rescheduled Public Inquiry for this operator. I do not expect to attend as I am no longer an officer of the company, but having been a director until 8th July I would like to take this opportunity to make you aware of some observations that I hope you will find relevant and useful.

Along with my erstwhile business partner Philip Higgs, we acquired Altonian Coaches Ltd from its previous owner in 2022, with a view to developing it into a successful, compliant, growth-oriented provider of local and contract bus services initially in the Bristol region and subsequently across the wider South West.

I remain proud of the progress we had achieved towards this ambition in the period until the unexpected developments of early July 2024. We had developed the Altonian business into a 10 PVR operation providing a range of commercial and contracted local bus services and private home-to-work contracts.

As an aside, it is a matter of record that we had attempted to diversify into school bus operations in the Bournemouth area following the cessation of another operator, but this had proved unsuccessful and we had taken decisive action to close this operation in early 2024, in order to focus on the successful Bristol business.

Up until my departure from the business, we were making positive plans for the future, including most recently:

• Submitted registrations for new and varied services from 1st September in line with West of England Combined Authority (‘WECA’) fixed timetable change dates, in keeping with our valued membership of the WECA Enhanced Partnership

• Submitted tenders for new BSIP-funded WECA local bus service contracts - which it subsequently emerged we would have been successfully awarded

• Secured and started operating a lucrative new agreement with Bristol Airport - a highly demanding client expecting impeccable standards - to provide their Staff Car Park service on-airport

• Responding to your legitimate concerns that had led to the calling of the original Public Inquiry, with a comprehensive bundle intended to give you confidence that we fully understood our obligations under the operator licensing system

However, for some time now this development has been in the context of a personal relationship between me and Mr Higgs that had gradually become strained. I would not seek to bore you with details of our personal disagreements, except to note that these were often compliance-related - for example I had declined to become a statutory director of other Transpora Group operating companies in other Traffic Areas because I did not perceive that there was a sufficiently robust view of compliance.

By week commencing 1st July 2024, I felt we had laid the foundations for a healthy and vibrant future for the Altonian business, but that on a personal level I could not go forward as a co-director with Mr Higgs. I also felt that it would be crucial to resolve this issue before the rescheduled Public Inquiry, so that you would be presented with a clear and truthful picture of the business as it intended to go forwards.

On Wednesday 3rd July or thereabouts, I informed Mr Higgs of my desire to step away from the business. Perhaps naively, I imagined this would trigger a conversation about the terms of my departure, or even whether there might be alternative scenarios that could achieve an amicable parting.

Instead, Mr Higgs immediately stopped engaging with me - promising numerous times that we would have a conversation but then failing to follow up on any promised dates or times. The only meaningful response from him was an email in which he proposed an arrangement where he would pay me a nominal amount each month to continue to process the payroll and carry out certain other administrative tasks. While this proposal wasn’t appealing as I wanted a clean break from the business, I neither accepted nor declined it formally, expecting that it would form part of the conversation that never happened.

Then on Monday 8th July, without any warning, Mr Higgs unilaterally removed me as a Director of Altonian and rescinded my shareholding. This was entirely unexpected in view of the complete lack of engagement up to that point, and inevitably meant for the first time that our internal differences became apparent to the outside world - unsettling suppliers, vehicle leasing companies, stakeholders and financial institutions for example, many of whom were asking me for answers I couldn’t give.

Throughout week commencing 8th July I continued to press Mr Higgs for a conversation - even if we couldn’t reach an amicable agreement, it would have been better for the business and the staff to have clarity over the position.

Mr Higgs continued to ignore my requests - even to the extent of being in Bristol but insisting he didn’t have time to meet me as he had to go and carry out a rail replacement driving duty in Manchester - an activity he clearly judged to be more important than resolving our business relationship. In the meantime over a period of a week, poor performance and lost mileage due to a lack of leadership meant that both Lidl and Coop withdrew contracts and found alternative operators.

He finally contacted me late in the evening of Thursday 11th July when it became apparent he had made no arrangements for the drivers to be paid on Friday 12th and was concerned as to how this could be made to happen. In the course of a number of exchanges of messages and calls, I gave him reassurance that this would happen and I’d arrange this for him.

I was therefore dumbfounded to be woken on Friday 12th July by an ex-colleague informing me that Mr Higgs had instructed all buses to be removed from service. Upon investigation, it became apparent that the insurance company had been unsettled by the chain of events and was intending to (but at that stage hadn’t) withdrawn cover.

I took it upon myself to attend the depot - informing Mr Higgs, who was driving a bus driving duty 200 miles away in Manchester - that I was doing so. Over the course of the day I used my contacts to put in place robust arrangements, including replacment insurance cover, that could have allowed the business to continue in its current form, or to be sold to a willing new onwer, but Mr Higgs chose to decline all such offers.

As a result, I focussed my efforts on working with operators such as Stagecoach and, Big Lemon CIC, to continue as many of the services as possible without interruption to the general public. By brokering an arrangement with the vehicle leasing company for the temporary loan of buses and drivers, I was able to help ensure continuity of service on almost all the company’s public bus services including programming their ticket machines and such so this could happen.

I have seen a huge amount of conjecture and speculation in the media and on social media about the events of early July, almost all of which fabricated and untrue, but many involving conspiracy theories asserting that I was complicit in these events.

I simply wish to place on record that at the point at which my involvement with the company ended on 8th July, it was in a strong and healthy position and even if I may have been sad that I was no longer personally involved, I would have loved to see the company continue to go from strength to strength.

Conversely, none of the bizarre sequence of events post-3rd July (unplanned cessation of services, removal of sole Transport Manager, PH falling out with the transport manager for non-payment and frequent company name changes) were in any way envisaged or planned at the time of my departure. In my view these were all avoidable and I am deeply distressed at the manner in which these have unfolded.

Over the years of my involvement in the bus industry I have come to hold the office of Traffic Commissioner in the highest regard, and I expect to be held accountable by you. As such, I wanted to take the opportunity to provide these notes to provide transparency as to my involvement.

While I remain unsure of my future career plans, should I wish to re-enter the bus industry I would wish this to be with your clear appreciation of my understanding of the importance of safe, compliant and lawful bus operation in the interests of bus passengers, staff and the wider public. As such, should you consider it helpful, I would be happy to meet with you at any time to assure you of my good faith.

I thank you for your time in reading this letter.  

4.3 The evidence of Philip Higgs

Mr Higgs told me that Transpora was set up as a company to contract staff and leases and suchlike. It was a brand that was used in a number of areas. There was Coastliner Buses in Blackpool, Manchester Bus Tours and London Bus for Hire, running heritage Routemasters in London. Mr Higgs was a funder for buying Altonian in February 2022. He was hands-on with the northern operations but less so in the south. Initially Altonian was Bristol-based but they were offered school contracts in Bournemouth and then a park and ride in Weymouth. The peak vehicle requirement in Bournemouth was seven. The vehicle base was at Poole Harbour.

He had found Rhys Hand to be a very energetic person with inspiring ideas. He was good at marketing and, on the face of it, the southwest operation looked good. They messaged each other most days and talked every other day. Mr Higgs’ role was more as a chairman. He had been made aware of the public inquiry when it was called but not of the correspondence leading up to it. There were many issues in the DVSA report that were news to him.

The south coast operation encountered issues early on. It was difficult to find contractors to maintain the vehicles and reliability was a big problem. Vehicles were sent down from the northern operations “like soldiers going over the trenches”. He recalled one vehicle being collected from Blackpool in the middle of the night to service a school contract the next morning. Mr Higgs asked a third-party to go down to see what could be done. The vehicles were maintained by a haulage firm, not familiar with buses and the quality wasn’t good. They found a new contractor in Xelabus but that was fifty miles away. Xelabus had their own fleet which they rightly prioritised.

He had visited the operating centre in Poole for the first time in February this year. It looked like a scrap yard and he was appalled. The south coast operation was not financially viable and they gave notice on the contracts and withdrew. Mr Higgs had not been aware of the issues with the driver walking off the job on the school operation.

The Altonian office became a bit nomadic at times, moving frequently and that probably contributed to the failure to respond to correspondence. There had been no intention to hide where they were. They finally ended up at the Big Lemon premises which was a good location.

Mr Higgs had not previously been aware of the Bristol City Centre encounter until he saw the statements in the public inquiry brief. He became more involved with the operation at that point. The more time he spent in the area, the more issues he identified. He disagreed with Mr Hand’s statement that the business was viable. The WECA registrations were unsustainable. Altonian was funded mostly by Manchester Bus Tours. He was content to continue that until probably September this year when they would have taken stock.

Mr Hand had gone on holiday for a fortnight. In that period, he had seen that the business was management-heavy for the size of the operation such as having two supervisors for ten buses. The business needed a good operations manager. He recruited Darren Mather from the Bath Bus Company who started on 1 July. That had rattled Mr Hand. Questions started to be asked about cash – the amount going into the bank did not match the amount taken on the buses. Private hire work was being undertaken with costs paid by Altonian but no apparent matching income.

Mr Higgs view of the cessation of services was at significant variance to that of Mr Hand. Mr Higgs terminated Mr Hand’s directorship of Altonian and Manchester Bus Tours. There had been no attempt by Mr Hand to contact him. As a result of Mr Hand’s termination as a director, Mr Higgs had changed the access code to the bank account. When he was travelling back to Manchester from Bristol, he received a text message alert to say that a large withdrawal from the Tide account to an individual had been requested. When he stopped and checked, the bank account had been emptied. That matter was still awaiting resolution and the bank account had been frozen

Vehicle insurance was operated through a cooperative arrangement coordinated by Status Bus & Coach. He contacted them the following day and the advice was that the frozen bank account was a breach of the terms of the insurance and that was what led to the decision to halt the services. He had also been advised that they might be at risk of trading whilst insolvent. He had been in discussion with the Big Lemon to take over the services the following day with Altonian staff and vehicles. There had also been a company that said they were interested in taking over the business as a going concern. Mr Hand had also been involved in trying to cover services and had spoken to Stagecoach.

Until very recently, he had felt that the business was salvageable. But what he had found subsequently had changed his mind on that. Those issues were for discussion in private. Surrender was offered but he couldn’t imagine there would be an appetite for that.

I referred Mr Higgs to the encounter report. The prohibition rate was 67% but that was two out of three. LX09FZR belonged to Manchester Bus Tours but had been collected by Altonian direct from EnsignBus. The bus would have been maintained by Poole Harbour and I noted that the defects were PSV-related.

4.4 Closing submissions

Revocation was not resisted. Mr Higgs’ had been the investor and Mr Hand the operational hands-on director. Mr Higgs had discharged his statutory duties. Much of the information he received had been positive and he had been kept in the dark regarding the bad bits. He had become the “last man standing” and his decision to suspend services had been justified on the circumstances. He had attended the inquiry. I should attach appropriate weight to the written representations of Mr Hand compared with the live evidence of Mr Higgs who had appeared and answered my questions.

4.5 In-private evidence

I have listened back to the evidence given in private. There is nothing that contributes to my decision. To protect that information, I have not recorded it here.

5. CONSIDERATION AND FINDINGS OF FACT

I have not seen evidence that financial standing remains satisfied so I find that it is not. There are no transport managers attached to the licence so professional competence is not satisfied. Revocation is mandatory on both those grounds.

I have been given no evidence to counter the assertions in the press articles relating to the very poor performance of the services to Kingston Maurward School. The company should have been very able to provide that and has not done so. I find that services failed to operate according to the timetable and it appears that was, in part at least, due to poor vehicle reliability, an operator problem.

One registered service provided to Gloucester County Council and several other registered with WECA ceased on or around 12 July 2024 with no notice. The public has a right to be able to rely on their bus services. Notwithstanding that the local authorities may have found alternative suppliers for some services, in Bristol, services 90, 925 and N2 ceased to operate leaving passengers without transport. Such unreliability is a significant detriment to all who seek to grow bus patronage to address environmental concerns. For that reason, a financial penalty order under Section 155 of the Transport Act 2000 is appropriate. The maximum level of that order has not changed since 2000. The Bank of England inflation calculator shows that £550 in 2000 is equivalent to £1012 today.

This is not a case of services running a bit late or of a small percentage of lost mileage. These are services, relied upon by citizens, ceasing, in effect, overnight due to mis-management of an operation. I can identify no external factors, no reasonable excuse. It is a result of a string of poor decisions and poor management that led the business to the point where it had no alternative. It is therefore appropriate that I order the maximum amount available.

I accept the position expressed by Mr Higgs that his primary role was as an investor and I accept his evidence of oversight in the way that he described it. By 12 July 2024, he had few options in respect of continuing operations particularly following the withdrawal of money from the company bank account as he described and as is supported by the bank statements I have seen. He made attempts to have at least some of the services covered and that is acknowledged by Gloucester County Council. He attended public inquiry and gave evidence in a public inquiry room that was exceptionally full of members of the PSV community. I make no adverse finding in relation to his good repute.

Rhys Hand has, once again, failed to attend a public inquiry. In his letter to me, he says “I would be happy to meet with you at any time”. I would remind him that we already had an appointment, at 2 pm on 8 August in the public inquiry room in Bristol. He failed to attend.

Mr Hand has much to answer for. A vehicle operated by him was found abandoned on an unlit A-road causing an obstruction so dangerous that the police had to step in to put in place emergency traffic management and to have the vehicle removed.

The incident in Bristol is of major concern. Driver Andy Murphy accepted that he, as a minimum, drove the positioning journey of the minibus whilst not holding the correct licence entitlement. Mr Hand made spurious comments about the vehicle not being in service and never responded to DVSA as he promised to explain how that aligned with it having a passenger on board and a disc in the window. I find that he lied to the DVSA officers that evening. Such conduct goes strongly against the good repute needed to hold a public service vehicle operator’s licence. The failure to respond to DVSA thereafter is a deeply aggravating feature. I accept as true the admissions made at the time by the driver and find that he drove a vehicle without the correct entitlement (the “101” endorsement meaning not for hire or reward, not without passengers) and that will likely have nullified any insurance. Whether or not he needed a CPC or to use a tachograph cannot be determined from the facts before me.

Telling the truth appears to be a life-style choice for Mr Hand. In, eventually, responding to my office on March 31 this year, he corrects his email to say “Snowdonia closed in 2019”. It did not. The company was compulsorily struck off the register on 6 April 2022 and dissolved on 19 April 2022. He and it had three years to pay the £300 owed to the Welsh Government. How can a regulator trust an individual who fails to comply with such a simple, and trivial, order made at a public inquiry and who then goes on to seek to hide behind the company having been closed when it had not.

A vehicle was in use whilst untaxed. Mr Hand never explained how that happened as he promised to do. He and the company never paid the back duty when there is clear evidence of the vehicle having been operated.

The prohibition rate of 67% may be skewed by the low sample size but the nature of the prohibitions is of concern. LX09FZR had the warning device which is designed to alert a driver that the emergency door has been opened not working. On that vehicle type, the door in question is on the offside at the very rear. Whilst a driver might eventually see it in his mirror, that may be after a child has fallen out. That is why the vehicle was deemed immediately dangerous.  The same vehicle was found to have wiring likely to short-circuit and two other, non-prohibitable defects. In the positive, when inspected at Ashley Woods Recover after the police recovered it there, it was found free of defects (although the extent of inspection conducted is not stated).

Vehicle W501RBB was found with a door that could not be retained in the closed position. The prohibition appears, from the papers, to have been marked as delayed because there were no passengers on board. It seems likely that the defect will have been present when the vehicle was last in-service. The vehicle was also prohibited for an excessive oil leak and a leaking exhaust with advice given for other defects.

I look for positives. Mr Higgs spoke of Mr Hand’s enthusiasm and innovation. He did make attempts to get at least some of the services covered following their cessation. The financial matters between he and Mr Higgs are not of my concern.

The positives are clearly trivial when contrated with the negatives. I have no hesitation in finding that his good repute is lost. The seriousness of events and their sheer number, in such a short period of time, and the previous adverse history, mean that a period of reflection away from the PSV industry is appropriate. This is Mr Hand’s second public inquiry. He failed to comply with the order made at his first and he has again failed to attend. For that reason, having regard to the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s statutory guidance, a period of 5 years is appropriate.

6. DECISIONS

Having failed to operate registered bus services, ceasing services with no notice, I direct that the operator pay a penalty of £8,250, that being £550 per vehicle with authority for 15 vehicles.

Pursuant to an adverse finding under Section 17(1)(a), that the licence holder is no longer of financial standing or professionally competent, the licence is revoked. The operation has ceased so revocation has immediate effect.

Mr Rhys Hand has lost his good repute as an operator.

Mr Rhys Hand is disqualified from applying for or holding an operator’s licence in any traffic area immediately and until 14 August 2029.

The good repute of Philip Higgs is intact.

Kevin Rooney
Traffic Commissioner

14 August 2024