County council to buy fleet of new buses to serve Warwickshire and replace ageing vehicles

The buses will be used to transport children to school as part of the H2ST fleet of 38 vehicles and are expected to cost £885,000 with £810,000 of that coming from the council’s capital investment fund.

Councillors at this week’s cabinet meeting approved the funding request even though the replacement buses will run on diesel rather than electric or hydrogen.

Deputy leader and portfolio holder for property and finance Cllr Peter Butlin (Con, Admirals and Cawston) explained: “We have looked at green solutions They might be OK for urban areas but for a large rural community that we have to serve, the alternatives are not viable at the moment.”

According to a report before this week’s meeting, the bus fleet was used so that the council met its statutory requirement to provide free home to school transport [H2ST] for those meeting the criteria.

It added: “H2ST is a complex mixture of services for SEND and mainstream children using our owned-fleet and contracted services with a wide range of assessed operators. It involves the use of service buses, coaches, specialist vehicles and taxis.

“A significant portion of the fleet is showing signs of fatigue, they are becoming unreliable and it is increasingly difficult to source parts. Maintenance of the fleet will require annual expenditure of £420,000 to keep the buses running, as a result it is no longer cost effective to keep them in service.

“Furthermore, half of this is the cost of fuel. At this age the vehicles are both very fuel inefficient (around 8 mpg) and too large with the wrong configuration of seating to meet the needs of the service.”

“Not having vehicles that are reliable, efficient and flexible can mean that we fail to make the best and most efficient transport network that we can. This can potentially mean that children’s journeys are frequently interrupted and costs to hire further transport are procured at spot rates.”

The new buses were among a number of schemes agreed by cabinet members at their meeting. Others included the purchase of waste containers at household waste recycling centres around the county and the conversion of a property in Holly Walk, Leamington, to provide office space primarily for the thriving gaming sector.