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By Scott Wright

A GLASGOW-based coach holiday operator has criticised its local council for taking months to decide whether the business was eligible for emergency coronavirus funding, before ultimately rejecting the application.

Eclipse Breaks, which runs tours to popular destinations around the UK, saw its business wiped out when the coronavirus pandemic struck and the country moved into lockdown last year.

However, despite the pandemic severely limiting its ability to trade, director Claire MacDonald says the company has been thwarted in its attempts to secure emergency funding.

Ms MacDonald said: “The lack of support has been unreal. It is not just the lack of support in terms of funding, [it is] even just the lack of support from the council, the people who are supposed to be administering funding and trying to actually help businesses.

“The lack of communication from them has made everything so much worse because it has taken so long for things to come to light, at a time when most businesses are on the brink and we are trying to survive to get through to the end of this.

“It has just been an absolute nightmare for us.”

In December, Ms MacDonald said Eclipse received an initial payment under the Strategic Framework Business Fund, launched by the Scottish Government in November to provide grants to companies forced to close by law under coronavirus restrictions.

Under the scheme, grants have been distributed to businesses for every four-week period they have been forced to close. The value of the grants depend on the rateable value of the properties businesses trade from.

The task of distributing the monies has been delegated by the Scottish Government to local councils.

Having received an initial grant of £1,500 from Glasgow City Council in December (three weeks of Strategic Framework funding), Ms MacDonald was expecting a sum totalling £8,000 (£2,000 of Strategic Framework funds and a top-up of £6,000) in January. However the January payment was not forthcoming.

Ms MacDonald said she then made repeated attempts to speak to council representatives to enquire about the status of the application. Unable to reach anyone at the council by phone – many staff are working from home and, she said, unable to receive incoming calls – Ms MacDonald said she was then frustrated in attempts to resolve the issue by email.

She said she received an email on February 5 stating that her payment had been processed on January 19. However, she said the grant did not materialise. Further emails to the council followed before she received an email on February 23 signalling the matter was being addressed. But on March 8 she was told the business was no longer eligible for the funding.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “This business received the Strategic Framework payment in error, as – in line with Scottish Government guidance – coach operators are ineligible for funding through that particular programme. Once it was identified that this particular payment was made in error, the business would have been removed from future payment runs and advised of this action.

“While we are not aware of any business having to wait two months for such information, we appreciate that any undue delay could cause concern.”

The council said Eclipse could attempt to secure support through a separate pot, the discretionary funding scheme, which it administers.

Ms MacDonald said the length of time it had taken the council to rule on its application for a Strategic Framework grant meant her company missed out on other funding opportunities. She noted investment had been made in the business to help prepare for reopening, in the expectation that grant funding would be forthcoming.

“Then, to be told in March you are not getting it, you are not eligible for it anymore, is just crazy,” Ms MacDonald added. “Nobody could tell me when the eligibility changed. But also, we know of another business who is exactly the same as us that did receive their payments in January, so essentially got £8,000 more out of it than we did. You would expect the eligibility would have changed for everybody at the same time.”

The council spokesman said: “We are unaware of any other coach operators receiving Strategic Framework funding from GCC, so cannot comment further at this stage.”

Since the pandemic took hold, Ms MacDonald said the support Eclipse has received has been limited to an initial grant of £6,000, made around one year ago, and the furlough scheme – in spite of operating in a sector of the economy that has been “one of the worst hit” by the crisis. While the furlough scheme has enabled the company to retain its staff, “it doesn’t obviously help in any way with our fixed costs, to keep the business ticking over until we can start taking bookings again.” Ms MacDonald said the company has received an “encouraging” level of bookings in recent weeks, but noted many of its customers remain wary of travelling.