Happy Days minibus driven with no MOT
Boss refused transport licence
An East Kilbride childcare provider who drove kids on a minibus with no MOT has been refused a transport licence to continue operating by Scotland’s Traffic Commissioner.
Joan Aitken said she had doubts about the repute of Gillian Geddes – who runs Happy Days Out of School Care in East Kilbride and Uddingston – and whether she could be trusted to operate vehicles.
In a written decision issued after a public inquiry last month, the Traffic Commissioner concluded that Mrs Geddes had seen herself as some sort of victim when government inspectors stopped her vehicles.
But the regulator added she was no victim other than the victim of her own decision to ignore advice she’d been given in 2016 by the DVSA to get a public service vehicle operator licence (PSV) for her business after operating unlawfully.
“She chose to ignore that advice,” reported Ms Aitken.
A vehicle’s MOT had also expired in April 2017 but it was still being used to transport children from day care facilities at Westwood Parish Church in June last year.
Ms Aitken remarked in her report: “Given that her business is engaged in the transportation of children as part of its service to parents, it is to the public good and in the interests of public safety that examiners did select her vehicles and operation that day.”
Ms Aitken put it to Mrs Geddes that she took the chance of operating without a PSV licence as she perceived lots of other people were getting away with it. She replied: “Yes”. The report says there is no “grey area” regarding who needs a PSV licence and that information is out there “for all to see”.
But the report states Mrs Geddes can apply for a PSV licence in the name of Happy Days Out of School Care Ltd.