News

Stirling Council has had its licence cut for six months after a series of maintenance problems, including wheel losses.

Scottish traffic commissioner Joan Aitken cut the licence from 115 to 92 vehicles after hearing at an Edinburgh disciplinary inquiry that since February 2002, the council's vehicles had been issued with 23 immediate and eight delayed prohibitions.

Aitken heard that an immediate S-marked prohibition was issued to a vehicle on March 2006 after a wheel hit a static  caravan in a car park. A wheel loss incident resulted in an S-marked prohibition in September after vehicle examiner Graeme Patterson received an anonymous phone call. On visiting the council's maintenance contractor ABRO at its facilities in Forthside, Stirling, he found that the vehicle's driver had reported a missing wheel from the trailer when he returned to the Callandar operating centre earlier that month.

The council's head of performance and resources, Oonagh Gil, said she, along with the director and the chief executive, had greater focus after the incidents over the past year. The FTA had been engaged to do audit checks and driver training on defect reporting.

John Harris, director of environmental services, said that the contract with ABRO would be constantly monitored and reviewed.