Shamrock Buses

EDM number 953 in 2001-02, proposed by Chris Bryant on 06/03/2002.

That this House notes that following a meeting last March between Plaid Cymru leader of Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council, Mrs Pauline Jarman, and the RCT Bus and Coach Operators' Association, the Nationalist-run Council awarded an extraordinary one-year extension of the existing school bus contracts without any formal tendering process and increased the value of the contract by 7.5 per cent., rather than the 5.6 per cent. recommended by officers; further notes that the convenor of the RCT Bus and Coach Operators' Association was a prominent Plaid Cymru supporter, Mr Clayton Jones, whose Shamrock buses was a major beneficiary of this new contract and who made a personal donation of ú1,500 to the Rhondda branch of Plaid Cymru only two weeks after the meeting with Mrs Jarman; is troubled at this clear breach of standard tendering processes and the probable resultant budget overspend of ú300,000 identified by the District Auditor; and calls on the Nationalist leadership in Westminster and in Cardiff to condemn this case of Plaid doling out contracts to their butties.

This motion has been signed by a total of 24 MPs.