Coach bossin pleafor Holyrood support
A coach operator whose business is on the brink of collapse has repeated his call for the government to do more to help the struggling industry.
Pitlochry-based Elizabeth Yule Transport has had all its private bookings this year cancelled.
The Scottish Government said the coach industry had shared in a £2.3 billion package of measures to support Scottish businesses.
But the company’s managing director Ricky Morton said the cut of the funding they had received amounted to £10,000.
Mr Morton told the PA coach operators have had to spend in excess of £300,000 per coach to meet new lowcarbon emission zones set out by the UK and Scottish governments.
He said they only had five years to spread these costs and the financial impact of this, coupled with furlough coming to an end, was “horrendous.”
Elizabeth Yule Transport employs 12 staff and has eight coaches and minibuses.
Mr Morton said: “Whilst the coach industry, like many other sectors, were in receipt of the small business support grant for business rates, many did not receive this as they did not qualify for it.
“The leisure, hospitality and tourism sector received a £25,000 grant from this and as our coach industry have not been included in this group, most only received the £10,000 grant.”
Fergus Ewing, secretary for rural economy and tourism, suggested coach operators should apply for the pivotal enterprise resilience fund.
Mr Morton did this but said the fund closed due to the high volume of applicants from other sectors. He said it then reopened for just three working days.
He dsaid: “I had to produce our last year’s accounts, bank statements and forecast the COVID-19 impact on our annual cash flow for this financial year.
“This showed a substantial shortfall and, despite this, we were rejected any form of funding from this grant along with around 80 per cent of coach companies.
“It would appear that this grant was on a first-comefirst-served basis as I am aware of millionaires who had received this funding and companies like ourselves have missed out.”