Grant Palmer 'considering legal advice' after bus row with Bedford council and Stagecoach over free journeys

The company has held the contract to provide service 25 for well over a decade and says during this time it has invested heavily with four new buses and capped contactless fares.

With that contract ending on Wednesday (July 31), Grant Palmer believed there were sufficient customers to operate certain journeys without subsidy. And it says it registered the revised timetable in good time with the traffic commissioner and Bedford Borough Council.

But according to a statement from Grant Palmer: “Bedford Borough Council tendered the entire 25 service over the top of Grant Palmer’s operations with new operator Stagecoach East providing buses at exactly the same time as the incumbent operator.”

And it claimed: “Stagecoach East is currently operating journeys for free across its new network as it did not meet the required deadline for bus service registration. This has led to Stagecoach buses in receipt of government funding being operated for free – in contradiction to the Transport Act 1985. At this current stage, Grant Palmer Ltd is considering legal advice.”

Thomas Manship, commercial manager for Grant Palmer Ltd added: “We’ve operated service 25 for over 13 years, providing a consistent level of service for customers in north Bedford. Despite the challenges of operating bus services post Covid-19, we recognised a commercial opportunity to provide bus services for customers on service 25. It is frankly astonishing that Bedford Borough Council is choosing to waste taxpayer’s money, at a time when local authority budgets are strained.”

A spokesman for Bedford Borough Council said: “Following the deregistration and change of the rural routes by Grant Palmer the council then had to speedily undertake a transparent tendering process in which Stagecoach has successfully been awarded some services in north Bedfordshire to ensure these villages continued to receive public transport.

“Stagecoach have taken on the following bus routes from August 2:

22 Bedford – Brickhill / Clapham Green

22A Bedford – Kempston – Kempston Rural

25 Bedford – Harrold – Rushden / Villages

27 / 27A Bedford – Cardington – Renhold – Cardington – Bedford

28 / 28A Bedford – Kimbolton - Little Staughton – Keysoe – Bedford”

Councillor Jim Weir, deputy mayor and portfolio holder for environment, said: “We are committed to providing high-quality public transport options for residents of Bedford borough. Our goal is to deliver outstanding service and we look forward to working with Stagecoach on the above services.”

From August 1, Grant Palmer has a new timetable for the 25 Bedford – Harrold.

Councillor Weir added: “We continue to work with Grant Palmer on their reduced 25 route but refute any claims that we have wasted taxpayer’s money. Stagecoach will be providing a similar 25 service, however this will be covering all villages.

“What I would say to residents is please support your local bus route – we need to ensure passenger numbers increase to maintain the viability of all routes. At just £2 for a single fare, bus travel is incredible value.”

Darren Roe, managing director of Stagecoach East, added: “Providing a bus service to the villages along the 25 route is an important part of this service, and being able to continue to serve these communities – helping to reduce the impact of rural isolation and vulnerability.

“We have a proud tradition, as the largest bus operator in Bedford, of bringing communities together throughout the town and wider region. We always seek to provide a service that is best for Bedford and so we are looking forward to operating the 25 service to our usual high standards.

“We have worked in partnership and at pace with the local authorities to take over the service, however this transition was not as smooth as we all would have liked, leading to a slight delay in the acceptance of the registration, and as a result we will be operating the service free to customers until the registration is accepted by the traffic commissioner.”