Court Grants B.B.A. Judicial Review in Case against Floralia

The Belize Bus Association appeared on the news last week to raise concerns they have with the current public transportation revamping and the demands that the Department of Transport is placing at their feet to upgrade their fleet of buses, as well as the service they provide to Belizean commuters. The B.B.A. has questions over the ownership and investment of its fiercest competitor in the industry, the proprietors of Floralia Bus Line, which has been providing superior service between Belize City and Punta Gorda. But there was a case pending before the courts over that same run, and a ruling was made on Independence Eve. Today on Open Your Eyes, Secretary of the B.B.A, Ewart Metzgen shared the details with us, after which President of the association, Thomas Shaw explained why they had an issue over the southern runs.

Ewart Metzgen

Ewart Metzgen, Secretary, Belize Bus Association

“On the twentieth September around five-thirty six, the lawyer that represents us from Barrow and Williams called me and told me that the court ruled in our favour in the case we had – Brian Williams – James Bus Line against D.O.T. and Floralia, we were granted judicial review. So with our case put forward, with all the evidence we presented to the lawyer and the lawyer put them together and presented them to the court, the court saw whereby there were some improprieties where Floralia was inserted into the industry so hence, the granting of the judicial review. The runs that they are doing presently was being serviced by one of our members, which is James Bus Line and Brian Williams, so that was one of our contentions and as we always state, if the board is going to issue a permit you do your due diligence and you have to make sure that it’s not going to impact an existing operator. If it’s going to impact an existing operator then that should be null and void. But they came in and the board stated that they gave a presentation and it blew their minds, so based on that they issued the permit. But you have a thing they call cause and effect, you have sowing and reaping, so what you sow you reap. The thing is because of you giving Floralia these runs you have one of my operators maybe cannot meet his payments at the end of the month. We at the B.B.A. thought it was – we see where it was unfair – so our members – we got together, we had a meeting and this is how the case actually came about.”