Express Motors to be wound up after their licence is revoked
A GWYNEDD bus company stripped of its operating licence by the Traffic Commissioner is to be wound up.
Directors of Express Motors (Penygroes) decided to appoint liquidators at a meeting just before Easter.
The firm operated services in Gwynedd and Anglesey alongside family partnership E W and J A Jones, which traded as Express Motors and was led by Eric Wyn Jones.
But the operating licences of both entities were revoked after a public inquiry in August over the state of some vehicles.
A coach operated by Express Motors (Penygroes) was involved in a serious road accident in France in July 2016 which led to the inquiry.
Traffic Commissioner for Wales Nick Jones was told directors planned to give up the licence for Express Motors (Penygroes) and reorganise the family partnership to operate fewer buses.
Documents filed with the Insolvency Service and published in the Gazette show the meeting just before Easter passed a resolution that Express Motors (Penygroes) be “wound up voluntarily” and liquidators appointed.
Since the licence was revoked on December 31 last year, buses have been offered for sale online and by dealers.
At an auction in Lancashire earlier this week, four buses were offered for sale.
Other vehicles have been parked at the depot in Penygroes and on land at Bontnewydd and Deiniolen.
Robert Rutherford, of Liverpool-based insolvency practitioners Parkin S Booth, said they had been appointed to consider a Voluntary Arrangement for the limited company and were advising the family partnership on a similar arrangement.
This would allow any debts to be paid over a period of time.
“These discussions are in the early stages and we are trying to determine what assets are available,” he said.
Before its demise, the company employed around 80 people including drivers, mechanics and office staff. Some left before the licence was revoked, with many finding work with compa- nies which took over former Express Motors routes.
But around 40 drivers remained with the company into January. They were later told they were being laid off without pay.
A former driver said: “Those drivers who stuck with Express had hoped a new company would be formed and they would still have a job. Many are very unhappy at the way things have turned out.”
Mr Rutherford added that, if the voluntary arrangement is approved, staff would be entitled to redundancy payments in lieu of notice backed by a government scheme.
The Traffic Commissioner rejected an application by another firm, Express Motors (Caernarfon), for an operating licence.
In a written decision, Mr Jones refused to grant the new company a passenger transport licence, concluding the business fell “well short” of meeting the requirements.
An application by two other companies, both with links to the former Express Motors operation, is still being considered by the Traffic Commissioner.