UK North

UK North

UK North Ikarus bodied DAF SB220 in July 2004
Ceased operation	January 2007
Headquarters	Gorton, Manchester
Service area	Greater Manchester
Service type	Bus operator
Depots	1
Fleet	74 (February 2007)
Directors	Vincenzo Casale David Ellis

UK North was an English bus operator in Manchester, also trading under the revived GM Buses name, which operated services on routes 42, 86 and 192, primarily in direct competition with Stagecoach Manchester in a 'bus war'. ^{[1] [2]}

However, this was to be short lived as services were suspended during the 2006 Christmas period, over safety fears after several buses were involved in accidents. These included the death of Martin Pilling, who fell in front of a UK North bus driven by Krzysztof Ociepa, a Polish national who had worked 19 days without rest, ^[3] which crashed into the cherry picker he was working on along the Wilmslow Road bus corridor on 1 November. ^[4] Other incidents included a double-decker bus crashing into a railway bridge earlier in October after the driver got lost and could not recognise warning signage and a bus being driven the wrong way down a one-way street. ^[5]

In February 2007, UK North and GM Buses, jointly operating a fleet of 74 buses with 130 drivers, were formally banned from operating bus services across Greater Manchester by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). In an inspection 28 of UK North's buses at their Gorton depot shortly before the suspension of services, 16 buses were immediately prohibited from operation due to braking and steering faults as well as suspension defects. VOSA returned to the depot as well as the home of one of the managers, Vincenzo Casale, and seized documents detailing concerns of drivers exceeding legal drivers' working hours requirements as well as 34 Notice of Intended Prosecutions served to the operator's drivers by Greater Manchester Police. ^[5]

One week after the death of Martin Pilling, Vincenzo Casale as well as co-director Ernesto Casale were questioned at a public inquiry by Traffic Commissioner for North West England Beverley Bell, being asked to provide evidence of the training standards of foreign drivers, 100 of which were Polish nationals and had limited ability to speak English. Evidence, however, was not received by Bell, with UK North's directors and solicitors arguing all drivers had at least five days of training and denying any had worked excess hours. ^[5] However, the inquiry was adjourned in favour of criminal proceedings after it was found that duty rosters submitted by directors Vincenzo Casale and David Ellis had been falsified, in an attempt to discredit the findings of the inquiry, and in July 2008, the two directors were sentenced to 15 months in prison at the Manchester Crown Court for conspiracy to defraud the Traffic Commissioner, with fellow director Ernesto Casale additionally charged with conspiring to create false documents. ^[3]

After their release from prison, in April 2010, Vincenzo Casale and David Ellis were served lifetime bans against acquiring public service vehicle operating licenses by Traffic Commissioner Bell. UK North's traffic manager Colin Bell was additionally stripped of his license to operate by Bell. ^[6]

References

1. "Bus wars: Get it sorted". Manchester Evening News . 15 February 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
2. "Council concerns over 'bus war'". BBC News . 3 April 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
3. "Bus bosses jailed for fake papers". BBC News. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
4. "Bus companies banned from roads". BBC News. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
5. "Bus fleet banned from city's roads". Manchester Evening News. 15 February 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
6. "Lifetime ban for bus bosses". Manchester Evening News. 18 April 2010. Retrieved 5 January 2025.

External links

• Media related to UK North (bus company) at Wikimedia Commons