Remember Remember the rest of November?

"UNIONS intend to make November a month to remember ” PTOPA Torpoint has now gained a 3rd Dart TGP New Blogs: Lorries Archive Richmond

UNIONS intend to make November a month to remember to prevent the sell-off of Citybus. On November 7, Unite Deputy General Secretary Jack Dromey will visit the city to speak and meet with opposers at the City Bus Social Club. Following on from the rallying visit protesters say they will hold a number of events to highlight their campaign, including street stalls in the city centre to raise the awareness of the public. Mark Baskerville, Unite Branch Secretary at City Bus said recently: "We had 20,000 signatures on the petition and 350 people at the public meeting. "The public are behind us and the politicians need to remember they are up for election in May." The campaign will culminate in a march through the city centre followed by a rally outside the Guildhall on November 28. This is Plymouth . This is just the latest development in the ongoing saga on the Citybus sell off. October rounded off with Labour calling for a public inquiry: OPPOSITION councillors are demanding a public inquiry into what they have called "breathtaking" conduct from the city's finance chief over controversial plans to sell Citybus. Top conservative councillor Ian Bowyer has come under fire for revealing one of the consortiums bidding to buy the council-owned bus firm was no longer in the running. But the Cabinet member for finance and budget would not tell the opposition group how he came to know the consortium, headed by Plymouth taxi boss John Preece, was no longer being considered as a bidder. After the meeting Labour councillor Bill Stevens vowed to "not let this matter drop" and called on Cllr Bowyer to "come clean and give a full account of his actions". He said: "This conduct from a cabinet member is breathtaking. Serious questions remain unanswered. But Cllr Bowyer hit back at the comments – and at the Labour group's demands at Monday's meeting for an updated report on the valuation status, which were blocked in a vote. "My statement at the last council meeting was clear," he said. "I have done nothing wrong. This is Plymouth . As always you can follow events so far on my Citybus Sale Time Line . Meanwhile the pool of municipal owned bus companies gets ever smaller with the sale announced of Islwyn Borough Transport to Stagecoach. This recent development is explained nicely in Omnibuses latest post which also gives the opinion that "Industry insiders report that Stagecoach is likely to trump Go Ahead in the race for Plymouth Citybus, though Stagecoach’s bid is unlikely to top the looked-for £10mil council price tag" Omnibuses2.0. I have heard similar opinions expressed, although my sources could not really be described as industry insiders!

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