The owners of a Scottish bus firm have taken legal action against the Government after being rejected for zero-emission bus funding.
McGill’s, which is owned by billionaire brothers James and Sandy Easdale, who are some of Scottish Labour's biggest donors, was overlooked for cash as part of the Scottish Government’s ScotZeb3 scheme which supported bus firms with the transition to electric, zero-emission fleets.
The firms said if its £4.3 million bid had been successful, it would have purchased vehicles from ailing bus builder Alexander Dennis, in the hopes of securing Scottish jobs.
The company has now taken the matter to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in a bid to overturn the decision and force the process to be reformed.
Sandy Easdale hit out at the process, saying: “The move would have boosted Scottish jobs and enabled it to remove more diesel vehicles from its fleet across Scotland.
“The largest share – £13 million – was awarded to coach firm Ember to buy 100 Chinese electric coaches to expand its existing network, which would not result in any diesel vehicles being replaced.
“We have questionable decisions being made on large amounts of public money by nameless people in secret rooms who are trying to avoid scrutiny.
“Decisions on taxpayers’ sums of this magnitude should be fully transparent and decision-makers should be willing to be held accountable.”
James Easdale – whose company Dalglen (No 1813) Limited donated £150,000 to Scottish Labour – added: “There is also a fundamental question about fairness and transparency in how this funding has been allocated.
“We have looked very closely at the scoring process and reached the inevitable conclusion that a legal appeal had to be submitted.”
While missing out on ScotZeb3 funding, McGill's has benefitted from previous funding rounds, including ScotZeb1 and ScotZeb 2, through which the firm was awarded close to £50 million.
The £8.6m received through ScotZeb1 funded 41 buses and the second round, which awarded £41.7m was used to deploy 42 buses.
Additional funding support was also awarded to McGill's through the Scottish Ultra Low Emission Zone Bus (SULEBs) scheme, which was spent to buy or upgrade 68 vehicles.
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “We are aware that McGill’s Buses has submitted a claim to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. As this matter relates to legal proceedings, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.
