A HUGE legal battle is looming over a major push towards bringing bus services under public control — with Greenock-based McGill's declaring they will take it to 'every court in the land and beyond'.

The contentious matter will be discussed at a crunch meeting of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in Glasgow today, as campaigners for the franchising of services picket outside.

Recommendations laid out by SPT are that work should start on franchising by using newly activated powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

McGill's — owned by billionaire brothers Sandy and James Easdale — say this would amount to 'theft of a private business' and could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

SPT chief executive, Valerie Davidson, concedes that local bus franchising would require considerable time and investment.

Therefore, the organisation also intends setting up a Bus Service improvement Partnership (BSIP) to ensure private and public sector commitments to 'arrest further passenger decline and improve the bus network over the medium term'.

But campaigners are concerned that the BSIP would only serve as a delaying tactic, rather than pushing immediately for franchising, which they say is a proven success in several regions of England.

Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, a founding member of grassroots campaign group Get Glasgow Moving, said: "To minimise the amount of public funds going in profits to the shareholders of private bus firms, the Scottish Government must stand ready to support SPT with their ambitious franchising plans."

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, said: "The benefits of bus franchising are clear – it gives commuters better routes, better pricing and simpler ticketing systems."

The Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign recently handed a 10,000-signature petition to the SPT board, calling on them to use new franchising powers to regulate buses across the region.

Peter Kelly, director of The Poverty Alliance, said: "Our members tell us about the difficulties and hardship caused by the present bus system.

"They tell us that buses are too expensive, not joined-up, and often don’t run at times or to places that people need."

McGill's last year controversially axed its 540 service in Gourock, sparking a petition and calls from politicians for the decision to be reversed.

The bus company said it was a 'loss-making route' and that councillors 'at not stage offered a way to financially underpin' the service.

McGill's CEO, Ralph Roberts, said: "Franchising is effectively confiscation of a business that has been built in good faith over many years with investors funds and it raises a host of legal implications, including issues under Article 1 of ECHR.

"It goes against every sense of natural justice and we would take this to every court in the land and beyond.

"Franchising can be introduced in a different way and our opposition to it will be absolute until the threat of theft of a private business is lifted."

Mr Roberts went on to say that local authorities have failed to "do their job" and help bus users by prioritising buses over private car use.

He added: "Our advice is simple and based on proven experience from around the world - remove buses from congestion and take business confiscation off the table.

"These two simple steps will build trust and show that this is about bus users rather than a power trip for politicians and quangos, most of whom never set foot on a bus.

"SPT’s own transport plan states that bus users should get priority over car users.

"Councillors are terrified to do this as they fear they would lose their job.

"Instead, they want taxpayers to fund an expensive and inefficient new system where buses remain stuck in traffic and car users get 11 times more road space than a bus user.

"They will do what is safe for themselves rather than what is right."

Mr Roberts was also scathing of SPT, saying he had given a presentation in 2017 to the organisation detailing challenges faced by the bus industry but that SPT had 'sat on its hands' since.

He said: "I followed up in a letter to the SPT chair in 2021, again detailing the problems we have faced. Nothing has been done.

"Politicians want to play fast and loose with taxpayers’ cash, as we have seen over ferries, Prestwick Airport and the deposit return scheme.

"They have no idea how to run a bus company and should address the issues that are in their control."