Julian Peddle
Peddle was born in Uxbridge but grew up in Slough studied transport management at Loughborough University, working for various National Bus Company subsidiaries during holidays.
He joined the co-ordination staff of Staffordshire County Council in 1978, and after 15 months moved north to become traffic manager at 29-vehicle independent bus and coach operator Mayne's of Manchester.
[3] In 2000 Peddle purchased Luton based operator Lutonian in partnership with Chris Day of Red Rose Travel.
Lutonian had in fact been taken over by Arriva Shires & Essex, but they had been forced to resell the company following a ruling by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission.
The operation proved difficult to manage so the company was sold to Centrebus, a large independent formed in 2001 with its headquarters in Leicester.
Under Peddle's co-ownership Stevensons expanded quickly, launching a network of tendered services around Uttoxeter which required no public subsidy.
They also took over two small operators, Middleton's of Rugeley and Erewash Travel Services, in the early 1980s; the latter was sold to Nottingham City Transport in 1988.
Peddle credits the large numbers of Daimler Fleetline double-deckers bought from London Regional Transport with making this level of expansion possible, as they were cheap to buy and easy to run.
Fox's managing director, David Martin, arranged to move Peddle to another Drawlane subsidiary, Manchester-based Bee Line Buzz Company, for a year to reduce losses there.
[4] In June 1994, following stiff competition with West Midlands Travel in the Black Country, Staffordshire County Council announced it intended to sell its share in Stevensons.
Peddle did not want to buy the council's shares as this would have cost him £4.5 million, so he and David Stevenson instead agreed to sell the entire company to Drawlane's successor British Bus.
Stevensons, British Bus, Potteries and Peddle himself formed a consortium called Rhondda Buses to take over the former National Welsh depot at Porth in February 1992.
This was the bus division of Silver Coach Lines, a company run by the former manager of National Welsh's Barry depot.
He also provided the money for TGM's takeover of Annfield Plain based Classic Coaches and smaller stakes in Burton's of Haverhill and The Linkline.
Few others agreed that this was practical and the group broke up, selling BakerBus to its management, Border Buses to Northern Blue and closing The Londoners altogether.
[4] In 2005 Choice Travel's managing director Tom Young wanted to retire, and with no obvious successor in the company, sold it to independent D&G Bus, based in nearby Adderley Green.
