A COUNCIL official has been suspended as an inquiry began into how an unlicensed island bus operator took children to school for 20 months.
It follows severe criticism of the Western Isles Council by Scottish Traffic Commissioners who attacked transport officials for being ''economical with the truth''.
Council sources in Stornoway yesterday revealed that Mr Les Watson, the transport official responsible for bus services, was suspended on Monday. He was told to clear his desk and sent home as an investigation was launched into the nature of evidence he gave to the Scottish Traffic Commissioners.
It had emerged at the licence application hearing last week that Harris bus operator John Angus Morrison took children to school for 20 months without the required licence.
In his hard-hitting summing up last Friday, commissioners' chairman Michael Betts recommended that the islands' council should determine whether internal disciplinary action was appropriate.
Mr Betts said there was no justification for the council knowingly letting a school-run contract to someone who did not hold the statutory public service vehicle licence.
The hearing heard that Mr Morrison, of Cluer, Harris, trading as Morrison's Coaches, did not have an operator's licence when he was awarded a school contract in 1996.
He ferried children to and from Sir E. Scott School in Tarbert, Harris, in an 18-seater coach and minibus without proper passenger service vehicle (PSV) documentation.
The commissioners found that Mr Morrison had borrowed two PSV discs from Angus Morrison, of West Tarbert.
Angus Morrison later took back the loaned discs after receiving a guidance note from the traffic commissioners.
The commissioners found that John Angus Morrison, while still having the school contract but no licence, then borrowed discs from two other island bus operators, Alasdair Maclennan, of Laxay, and Mrs Margaret Mackay, of Dalbeg, as the illegal bus operation dragged on for 21 months.
An official spokesman for Western Isles Council would yesterday only confirm an investigation had begun.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article