BUS companies accused of poor reliability will have to wait to learn their fate.

North West Traffic Commissioner Keith Waterworth has called five bus companies which operate in the Bury area to public inquiries after accusing them of poor performance in relation to their published timetables.

Bluebird Bus and Coach, Universal Buses Ltd, Stagecoach Ribble and First Manchester have already appeared before the Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchcliffe, with the inquiry for JP Executive Travel taking place on July 6. First Manchester, which attended its inquiry on Monday, said afterwards that it presented evidence to illustrate that the company operated 97 per cent of all its services correctly, allowing for incidents entirely outside their control - such as roadworks.

Mr Garry Raven, managing director of First Manchester, said: "First Manchester is a highly professional public service bus operator as our performance statistics clearly demonstrate. However, the company's mission is to continually strive for improvements in the level of service provided and we are constantly looking for opportunities to enable to do this."

Mr Waterworth has called a total of 17 companies who operate in the Manchester and Liverpool areas to the inquiries being held at Trafford Magistrates Court.

The deputy commissioner says that as so many companies are involved, he will hold all the inquiries and hear all the evidence before giving one judgment for all on July 15.

Mr Hinchcliffe can prohibit bus companies from running some services and also fine them if he finds that the charges against them are substantiated.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.