Bus Vannin insists it has not auctioned or disposed of any minibuses from its fleet - and has no plans to do so.

But this is despite one Sprinter included in the current fleet list being sold at auction in July while a second was due to go under the hammer at the end of September but subsequently withdrawn from sale.

Under a proposed reform of the Department of Infrastructure, minibus services used for non-emergency patient transfers, ConnectPorts, renal and day care transport are planned to be transferred to Manx Care, while special assistance school minibus services could move back to the Department of Education, Sport and Culture.

In a Freedom of Information request, Media IoM asked for a copy of the current Bus Vannin minibus fleet list and a list of all those that have been, or are due to be, disposed of.

In response, the Department of Infrastructure supplied a copy of the current minibus fleet list.

But it added: ‘Bus Vannin has not auctioned or disposed of any minibuses from their fleet since 2013.

‘Anything that has been auctioned has come from Fleet Services stock. Additionally, Bus Vannin have no plans to auction any minibuses at this time.’

But one vehicle included in the supplied fleet list, a Sprinter City 45 with fleet number 853 and registration MMN883B, was sold at Chrystals on July 31 for £14,000. It had 124,280 miles on the clock.

A second Sprinter in the fleet list, fleet number 871 and registration NMN871B, was due to go under the hammer at Chrystals at the end of September but was subsequently withdrawn from sale.

Until recently Bus Vannin had a fleet of 55 Mercedes Sprinter minibuses together with 24 older vehicles of various manufacturers. The fleet list supplied in the FoI response has a total of 58 - 55 Sprinters plus three Mercedes Benz City 45s.

The Sprinters were purchased between 2013 and 2021, with the largest number acquired between 2017 and 2018.

A 2019 FoI response said the purchase cost of a new minibus was £50-60,000 while one from November 2021 gave the most recent quote as £74,822 each.

A spokesperson for Bus Vannin has previously confirmed there are currently no plans to buy more minibuses. He said the ConnectVillages on-demand service in the north of the island will continue in line with the current operating licence.

He said discussions with DESC and Manx Care are ongoing and it was not possible at this stage to confirm whether staff and/or assets will transfer.

‘Established processes and appropriate consultations’ would be followed, he said, and staff informed at the ‘earliest opportunity’.