Family bus business one of many to suffer

Coronavirus is not the first health crisis the north-east has had to brave, nor will it be the first time businesses have fallen as casualties during a pandemic.

In 1964, Aberdeen’s High Street was forever changed after typhoid struck.

Which is something the UK Government has pledged to prevent happening again, as people up and down the country are confined to their homes amid the battle against Covid-19.

During the typhoid outbreak, author Sheena Blackhall watched her own family’s business close permanently as a result.

She said: “My dad was a manager of a Deeside bus service. Once word got out that I had typhoid, folk cancelled their buses and their trips.

“They also did a lot of tourist work in Deeside, as well as the main drag of transport between Aberdeen to Braemar, so folk were reluctant to get the buses because I had the disease and that was the final nail in the coffin.

“That finished the business, they closed up about a year after; a lot of other wee businesses went to the wall.

“I wouldn’t like to see it replicated in a town again.”