Who are we?

We are a small association representing the bus and coach industry and have been fighting for justice for the commercial transport sector against what we see as unfair treatment of the sector by the Department of Transport whereby they are unwilling to enforce the law against Community Transport operators who are blatantly in breach of domestic and European legislation.

I, Martin Allen, got involved in this case in late 2011, I have personally given my time, and thousands of hours checking legislation and regulations costing over £60,000 of my own personal income, I can only describe this campaign as David & Goliath.

Our Case

In 2012 I submitted tenders to my local authority (Nottingham CC) for home to school contracts and soon discovered that they'd been awarded to a community transport group based in Derbyshire (Erewash Community Transport - which incidentally is run by a local councillor). I challenged the authority over this award and later discovered that Derbyshire CC had been grant funding this organisation plus seven others in Derbyshire in millions of pounds in vehicles; all from the public purse, your money, tax payers money!

I was contacted by two other companies that had been challenging the UK authorities for over four years. It was at this point that I started to do some research into unfair competition and gathered evidence though the FOI act from every local authority throughout the UK which showed that these groups had been receiving millions in public money and vehicles. Furthermore, under favourable exemptions from vehicle and driver licensing requirements, these groups had been undertaking millions in contracts for local authorities, the largest of which is now turning over £63 million pounds. They continue to hide behind their not-for-profit status and pay themselves thousands in wages. The commercial bus and coach industry have suffered, and many small operators, hundreds of small family run businesses have ceased trading unable to compete with an entity which is being funded millions in public money, your money!

I made a complaint to the European Commission in February 2012 and was asked to narrow my complaint down to two local authorities. I later discovered that this was a request by the UK and not the Commission. The decision came in June 2015 and Derbyshire was found to be in breach of State Aid rules and new guidelines were set for the UK authorities. These guidelines were ignored by all UK authorities and I'm afraid to say that nothing has changed today.

In 2014,I formed the Bus and Coach Association and made a complaint to the European Commission Transport Department. In April 2015 the European Commission issued infringement proceeding against the UK government . In response, the UK authorities promised to undertake a consultation on the issue which closed in May of 2018. However, to date there has been no outcome to the consultation which just shows that there is no real commitment to resolve the issue. In fact it further proves that the Department for Transport are in total disarray with 33 million paid to channel tunnel and the misprocurement of train contracts costing the tax payer millions in mismanagement by the department.

The DFT undertook an assessment in 2016 to investigate the cost to the community transport sector in order for it to take the necessary steps in becoming complaint (driver and vehicle licencing) and their estimate was £69 million. However, once the government had shown willingness to provide assistance to the sector, this figure dramatically increased to £400 million!

Over the course of 2016 we made 104 complaints to various local authorities concerning the unsafe and illegal activities of community transport operators undertaking Special Educational Needs (SEN) contracts and eventually singled out one group. Initially they refused to investigate, however following legal pressure they were forced to investigate and on the 31st July the UK authorities issued a VERY IMPORTANT (from Stephen Fidler, Dft Buses & Taxis Division) letter to our lawyers and the community transport sector.

I advise all readers to refer to the this link and read the letter in its entirety as it gives clear and precise guidance to community transport operators and local authorities about what is lawful and complaint:

Wow, what an explosive letter! We felt that we had finally turned a corner and at last something was going to be done in order to address the irregularity between the two sectors. 

However, the Community Transport Association (CTA) and Mobility Matters (a campaign group set up to contest the letter of 31st July) instructed their members to disregard this letter and to continue business as normal in contradiction to the law, i.e. no operator's licences, drivers without appropriate licences, vehicles not maintained and tested to the higher standards!

Following on from this letter, a Transport Select Committee inquiry was launched in November 2017 (at which the Dft admitted that the guidance was applicable in the courts and that they had failed to keep pace with changing legislation and regulations) and under pressure from the CTA and Mobility Matters (who used emotional blackmail such as '10,000 children will not get to school), the Dft totally backtracked on their position regarding the law. They ignored our requests for debate, instead adopting the position that they hold the right on whether or not to prosecute, which left us with no choice but to issue Judicial Review proceedings against the Dft on the 13th December 2018.

The full debates can be accessed below.

13th November 2017

27th November 2017

Another debate took place on the 10th May 2018 in which the DFT came under attack by lobbyists who wanted to ensure that the community transport sector was protected at all costs (regardless of the law)! These lobbyists overlooked the fact that many of these organisations were making of millions of pounds in turnover helped on by huge government grants/subsidies, all undertaken using vehicles that were not subject to the same levels of maintenance and testing as commercial operators  and driven by drivers who were being paid to drive these vehicles without the appropriate licences! Even the chair person of the Transport Select Committee (Lillian Greenwood) who was elected as a neutral party, joined a forum dedicated towards stopping our quest for justice, the link to the debate can be found here.

We have to remember that this is all about road and passenger safety! These organisations are transporting the most vulnerable in our society and the public are unaware of this.

The CTA’s Bill Freeman has made statements asking his members to carry on until the end of the consultation. What Mr Freeman is asking is for permit operators and the contracting authorities to break the law.1071/2009 is directly applicable and has been since the 4 December 2011, so the law is being broken now (the law and not just guidance)! Mr Freeman would be better spending his time assisting his organisation to become compliant!

Contracting authorities that choose to carry on should reconsider their position. Many local authorities have become reliant on the sector and in many areas they have become the dominant party and hold the local authorities to ransom. 

The outcome of the consultation  will change nothing. We all have to remember that this is also under close scrutiny by the European Commission.

Over the years I and operators have contributed over 150 thousand pounds. 

The JR proceeding is costing 50 thousand pounds, we have so far collected 42 thousand pounds, one operator has contributed 30 thousand pounds.

You can appreciate we have done a large amount of work and we have employed top lawyers from London to represent us.

The safety of our children and the most vulnerable in society is at stake! Help us to receive justice!