All change at Reading Buses

Adam Hewitt • Published 2 Dec 2009 14:00 3 Comments

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BUS bosses have pushed through a shake-up of senior management to "streamline" the company.

Reading Transport Ltd (RTL) says replacing the three executive directors on its board with four will save £90,000 a year.

One of those three, chief executive James Freeman, confirmed that the other two former executives, operations director Sam Simpson and finance director James Carney, have left the company, as was widely suspected after long periods "on leave".

Mr Freeman said: "2009 is a year that people in RTL will remember as difficult and we have had to do a lot of tricky things during the last six months to respond to the economic downturn."

The former operations role is being split into two board roles and a non-board role, all of which will be filled by staff already at the company. The HR manager will become the board-level HR director in charge of personnel, the performance manager will become the board-level performance director in charge of the day-to-day running of the bus company, and all engineering responsibilities will be given to the engineering manager, who will remain below board level.

The finance director role is being advertised and the company secretary duties once done as part of the role will be undertaken by the commercial manager, who reports directly to Mr Freeman.

Reading Borough Council owns the bus firm and approved the changes at its Cabinet meeting on Monday night.

Mr Freeman said: "The new management structure is cheaper and more effective than what came before."

He said that thanks to the cost-saving measures taken this year, the company was turning a profit again after a terrible summer of falling passenger numbers and revenues. He recently revealed that turnover was down to £25m, from £28m the year before.

RTL board chairman Stuart Singleton-White said: "We're getting the company back to a profitable situation as soon as we can. We're getting to grips with a more streamlined management structure, one that is also less of a cost burden on the business."

Borough transport leader Cllr Tony Page, who had to end his long association with Reading Buses when his promotion to his current role last year made it a conflict of interest, said losing a dedicated HR director from the board during the turmoil of the mid-1990s was a mistake.

Tory leader Andrew Cumpsty demanded to know why the changes, if they were so necessary, had taken so long to implement and Mr Freeman said: "I've been in this post two years and five months and it's taken the first couple of years to get to grips with structural issues within the business.

"It's taken quite a lot of time but when you face difficult times that forces your hand. We had to face up to new issues that were previously covered up."

Lib Dem leader Kirsten Bayes welcomed the "fresh start" at the company and Cllr Page reiterated his belief that many towns and cities would "love" to own their bus companies.

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Mischievous
Unregistered User
Dec 2, 20:26
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Does a conflict of interest end when you leave a post if there still exists a working relationship?

There is something peculiar about a sudden need to get rid of all the Directors save Mr Freeman. It actually says that there is something wrong with the people who appointed them in the first place!!! Hey Ho, we are in silly season, so get ready for spin; especially as the HR Director will also take charge of PR.

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Howard Thomas
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Dec 3, 20:11
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I'm surprised that anyone on Reading Borough Council has recognised the term 'conflict of interest' , let alone its meaning!

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Chris Beckham
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Jan 15, 16:25
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Directors at RTL were told of the deficiencies of future issues when i assumed an engineering role. My telling of the implications led to my eventual departure.

At that time Mr Freeman was not party to that information and do not believbe he was allowed to be.

Now he is in control and if his HR director is Carolyne A the people of Reading can look to a better transport system than they have ever witnessed.

Good luck and god bless

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