Southam coach company joins 'honk for hope' protest in London

A coach company based in Southam joined hundreds of other coaches for the 'honk for hope' protest in London.

On Monday (June 20) around 500 coaches went to London to honk their horns in protest to the lack of Government support for the industry.

Coach companies from across the UK took part - including Catteralls of Southam, who have been running for nearly 50 years.

A spokesperson from Catteralls said: "We sent our boss, Paul Catterall, to London to join with other coach operators in order to make our voices, and horns, heard.

"Paul is actually recovering from Stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma so has been shielding throughout the lockdown period but felt so strongly about the cause that he decided he himself would drive the vehicle we were sending to join the convoy.

"This week the Government rejected proposals put forward to support the industry so 500 coaches have gone to London to make some noise.

"500 may seem a lot of coaches but is, in fact, just a fraction of the number which serve London every day in summer.

"Roughly 300,000 coach passenger journeys - mostly of tourists - pass through London each day.

"It is the capital's forgotten tourist link, providing the connection for inbound tourists from airports as well as important domestic tourism links.

"Unlike bus, rail and air industries, coach operators are protesting an almost complete lack of specialist government support, confirmed last week by Baroness Vere.

"All coach business effectively ended on March 23, and as a result, coach companies are going out of business daily.

"Whilst we’re extremely grateful for the furlough scheme and help we’ve received so far, we know more will need to be done as we are a highly seasonal industry heading into a difficult nine month long winter.

"We’re aiming to restart our own day trips and holidays but are having to work hard to rebuild confidence to travel."

Paul added: “It was fantastic to see hundreds of coaches from all corners of the UK, from Aberdeen to Cornwall, and as we don’t often get together in one place, you never truly realise how many coach firms there are in the UK.

"We are also the lucky ones as we were the operators who had coaches with the right engines and enough money for fuel to go to London.

"There are operators large and small going out of business daily and it’s a terrible thing to hear about as there is definitely a community in the coaching industry.

"Our representatives approached the Government with a package but they didn’t want to listen so we went to the Houses of Parliament ourselves to ensure we were heard.

"What was disheartening was that though coaches brought the capital to a (very loud) standstill for five hours as a cry for help, this did not make the national news.

"If coach companies are lost, they will be missed – when there is a crisis, coaches are the ones people turn to such as for rail replacements, volcanic eruptions, bad weather meaning flights have to land at different airports, etc and it’s not an exaggeration to say that virtually everyone has travelled somewhere by coach at some point in their life.

"Coach companies are investing at present too in anti-viral fog machines, hand sanitizers and other procedures to ensure we’re all Covid secure, along with managing the overheads that come from running £200,000 - £400,000 vehicles and large yards, but at present there is no business rates relief for our yards, no direct grants but also no income.

"If no notice is taken and coach companies are allowed to disappear at a daily rate, then their loss will be felt by everyone, but by then it’ll be too late.”