School contract axed over drivers’ licences
walesonline!
A MILLIONAIRE busman whose company was transporting children with special needs to school has had his contract cancelled.
Clayton Jones, former boss of Shamrock Travel, is now running a new company, Heart of Wales, which offers a specialist school transport service.
Cardiff council said random spot checks were carried out in the last week on vehicles understood to be part of Heart of Wales.
A spokeswoman said: “A small number of drivers were found to not have the correct licence for transporting children with special needs.
“The council has therefore decided to terminate the contract on certain routes with the operator.”
But Mr Jones denied that had been the reason for having the contract cancelled.
He said four children were being taken to Radnor Primary School in Canton, but parents were unhappy that the drivers and escorts, which are required when taking special needs children, were different every week.
“The driving escort changed every week, that was the problem,” he said.
“There’s no hard feelings at all.”
The Road Safety Act, which came into force earlier this year, has made conditions for school transport more stringent.
The new legislation was brought in to take out a legal loophole which provides an exemption from licensing rules for a private hire vehicle and its driver when the contract runs for more than seven days.
School transport fell under this exemption.
Last month, Cardiff-based taxi company A2Z had its contract terminated by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council after complaints were made of a car being driven the wrong way down a one-way street.
Abdul Ullah, the boss of A2Z, admitted there may have been a problem on the first day of the contract but said he was stunned by RCT’s decision and denied any wrong-doing.
Mr Jones, based in Pontypridd, attracted attention in July over a series of letters “bordering on harassment” to the Wales Traffic Area Office, where he called their administration “pathetic”.
At the time, Wales’ Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones branded him “argumentative” and “personally offensive”.
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