CALLS have been made for clarity over Wrexham Council’s contract with a company which has had its passenger transport licence revoked.

Last week, the Traffic Commissioner for Wales published a damning report into The Skiers Lodge Ltd (TSL), which ran four routes in Wrexham under the name of easyCoach.

Issues highlighted by Nick Jones included a wheel falling off one of the firm’s buses on the A483 dual carriageway in July last year.

Mr Jones decided to disqualify its sole director Andrew Martin from holding a licence for two years after accusing him of ‘arrogance’.

While TSL no longer runs buses in the area, the local authority has confirmed it still has a contract to manage the public information office at Wrexham Bus Station, which was awarded as part of a three-year deal last February.

According to Companies House, the firm recently changed its name to Transervis Limited and moved its base to an address in London.

The leader of Wrexham’s Plaid Cymru group has now raised questions with the council’s environment department about whether the company is ‘fit and proper’ to continue overseeing the service.

Cllr Marc Jones said: “Plaid Cymru councillors raised concerns about The Skiers’ Lodge as a company more than a year ago.

“The company ran a number of bus services for a very short time in Wrexham before the wheels came off, both metaphorically and literally.

“The Transport Commissioner has now banned the sole director, Andrew Martin, from acting as a transport manager due to those failings.

“The company has, in the past month, changed its name to Transervis Ltd last month and moved its headquarters down to London, so I’ve now written to the council asking whether this company is continuing to provide the information service in Wrexham bus station.”

He added: “If we’re going to improve public transport in Wrexham, as I hope we do, it’s important that we work with the right people across the sector and carry out due diligence.”

The commissioner’s report highlighted a catalogue of maintenance issues with vehicles owned by easyCoach, which opened an orange-coloured depot matching easyGroup’s branding in Rhosymedre during June 2018.

At the time Mr Martin promised cheaper fares for customers, but observations carried out by inspectors on one day last year found 40 per cent of its services were either late or failed to operate.

In response to the comments made by Cllr Jones, the council’s lead member for environment and transport said it was aware of the commissioner’s decision.

However, he did not confirm whether the contract to run the information office would be reviewed.

Cllr David A Bithell (Ind) said: “We are aware of the Traffic Commissioner’s published decision regarding the operation of bus services by this company.

“Wrexham Council cancelled all of our contracts with this company due to poor performance issues prior to the public enquiry.

“We do have a separate contract for the operation of the information shop at Wrexham Bus Station.”