Operators in North Lanarkshire have rejected claims that the industry was to blame for a crisis that led to hundreds of children being unable to travel to school in the early part of the new academic year. They have instead pointed at bureaucracy and a lack of foresight at contract commissioning level as the reason for the debacle.
A representative of one of those business, McDades Coaches of Uddingston, says that lessons must now be taken by other local authorities (LAs) if problems elsewhere are to be avoided where the expiry dates of contracts have been impacted by short-term extensions issued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Director Andy McDade adds that such a practice had been employed by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which manages the home-to-school transport procurement process on behalf of 16 LAs including North Lanarkshire Council.
‘Late awards to blame for debacle’
That approach led o many contracts in North Lanarkshire expiring at the end of the 2021/22 academic year. The resulting workload meant that new agreements to start in August were offered to operators late and on a piecemeal basis. The large volume of expiries seen earlier had left those businesses with no certainty over work from August onwards, which was a further complication.
As a result of a coming ‘clean slate’, some operators tendered for more contracts than they typically would. They were thus unable to commit to offers from SPT until they had full sight of everything they were being offered and what was most beneficial commercially and from a driver availability perspective.
On the first day of the new school year, 1,150 pupils in North Lanarkshire were left without transport after services failed to run. The day before, SPT had claimed that some operators “declined a number of approved and awarded contracts” but North Lanarkshire Council directed heavy criticism at SPT for the debacle.
Early warning went unheeded, operators claim
SPT’s claim is disputed by Mr McDade and another operator in North Lanarkshire. They say that the situation was known about well in advance and had been looming since mid-2021. In a statement, SPT has accepted that difficulty was caused by “an unprecedented volume of renewals” and it notes that short-term rollovers during the pandemic added pressure to that process.
Further time was introduced to the award process by a stipulation that contracts worth over £50,000 must be approved by North Lanarkshire Council despite SPT awarding them.
Operators were particularly cautious around accepting work without knowing the full picture of what else they may be offered because of penalties that are levied if a service does not operate, adds Mr McDade.
“Everyone was in a hurry to blame operators for the crisis, but it was not that simple,” he continues. “Some did refuse work, but it was not as made out. Instead, it was a rejection of a contract offer, not it being returned after acceptance.” That contradicts SPT’s position, but Mr McDade stresses that the penalties for an operator that would follow return of an accepted contract preclude such behaviour except in the direst circumstances
In response to enquiries from routeone, SPT says that tender submissions for contracts starting in August were received between January and July and that successful bidders “were notified following approvals from the respective LAs.” Unsuccessful participants may have since been asked to quote on uncovered contracts during the crisis as emergency cover was sought, SPT adds.
North Lanarkshire vehicle age limit compounded crisis
It has also come to light that despite some contracts not running for a period, North Lanarkshire would not accept a temporary divergence from its maximum vehicle age of 20 years to enable them to operate. One business says it could have provided interim cover with vehicles of over 20 years of age, but that was rejected by the LA and children were left stranded.
In a brief statement, North Lanarkshire has acknowledged that this was the case, but a spokesperson says the LA “would not compromise on our safety standards, as this is a priority.” The council has also cited driver availability as a more significant reason for some of the failures to operate.
In addition to the maximum age, North Lanarkshire requires vehicles used on home-to-school services to have a minimum of six months’ MoT validity, which effectively means two tests per year.
More minor difficulties with contract operation were encountered in South Lanarkshire. The LA there did not respond to a request for comment.
