A TEIGNMOUTH independent school will continue to use a coach firm that has admitted 'to a catalogue of maintenance disasters'.
Trinity School has been assured by Newton Abbot-based Town and Country Coaches Ltd that buses used to carry its pupils meet safety standards.
The move comes after a public inquiry last month heard that up to 85 per cent of vehicles operated by the firm had failed annual safety tests.
The company's licence was revoked, but it will not take effect until the end of May, allowing it to undertake existing contracts.
Trinity School bursar Imogen Laws said: 'We have been reassured all along by the company and because we are a small school, we know the company and its drivers and we have their trust,' she said.
A new director of the company and soon to be new owner, Kim Bates, confirmed that two buses used by Trinity School on a daily basis and for trips meet Department of Transport standards.
Miss Bates said: 'I personally reassured the school and parents of the children. They are welcome to make any checks and can contact me directly if they have any questions or queries,' she said.
But other school transport providers, Devon County Council and Torbay Council, have 'mutually agreed' to terminate their contracts with the company.
The authorities had contracted the company to carry schoolchildren to and from Teign School, Kingsteignton, Coombeshead College, Newton Abbot and Cuthbert Mayne and Churston Grammar School in Torbay.
The transport commissioner decided to revoke the licence after considering the history of the operator, 'with particular regard to the maintenance shortcomings over a period of time.
'There was little pattern to the defects themselves although they did indicate that this operator encountered difficulties in ensuring that its vehicles were kept fit and serviceable,' said the commissioner.
Owner Norman Squires has been deemed unfit to be involved in any way in the operation of a public service operator's licence or in the conduct of business relating to the maintenance of commercial vehicles.
Miss Bates admitted at the hearing that the company still had a lot of work to do in order to reach an acceptable standard.
The commissioner said that he had given Miss Bates credit for her good intentions and afforded her and the transport manager the opportunity to apply for an operator's licence that does not rely upon the involvement of Mr Squires in any way.