Repairs and bus drivers' rests probe

But Blackburn Transport's managing director Michael Morton, today stressed that the concerns were relatively minor and that he expected to ally to safety fears.

The company's application to have a licence for 20 extra vehicles will be the subject of a public inquiry because of two previous concerns.

In 1999 a coach driver from the company was fined £300 after he drove for six hours and 52 minutes without taking the required breaks.

A spokesman for the Government's North West traffic commissioner said that Blackburn Transport was also being scrutinised because of 'question marks' against the maintenance of their fleet in the past five years.

He added that the traffic commissioner needed to be certain that Blackburn Transport could cope with 20 extra vehicles.

Michael Morton said: "It's down to the traffic commissioner to make a decision on that, but we are confident we have the systems in place.

"We feel they have got the incident about the driver wrong, but that is one thing we will be able to put to them at the inquiry.

"We regulate breaks closely, but in this case the driver concerned ignored our instructions.

"When you apply for an extra licence, the vehicle inspector always checks to see if you can maintain the fleet. When I started here two years ago, we had 33 old double deck busesers, now there are only two, so everything is up to standard."

He added that the licence would enable the company to run a fleet of 140 buses, rather than 120, allowing them to expand services.

The spokesman for the traffic commissioner added: "The traffic commissioner looks back up to five years for any reported incidents.

"As well as the maintenance, they were also problems found about rest breaks. We have to ensure they have the finance and maintenance to expand their fleet."

The public inquiry takes place at the traffic area network's offices in Hillcrest House, Leeds on Friday.