The bus and coach manufacturer Alexander Dennis (ADL) is a jewel in the crown of Scottish industry, with a history dating back to 1902, when Walter Alexander opened a bicycle shop in Camelon.

They expanded into bus services and coachbuilding a century ago, in 1924, and grew to be one of the country’s leading coachbuilders.

Today, Alexander Dennis is a major player in the global bus industry, providing good, high-skilled manufacturing jobs across the country and exporting Scottish-built buses as far afield as Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States, with 31,000 ADL buses in service around the world, carrying 25,000 passengers every minute of each day.

But this Scottish industrial success story is under threat as the ADL board now propose closing its Scottish manufacturing base and moving all production to Scarborough, citing a lack of demand from Scottish bus operators for their new electric buses.

The closure of the Falkirk and Larbert factories would be a devastating blow for our country, with 400 job losses and another key Scottish industry gone.

But this hasn’t happened overnight – it is a direct result of the SNP government’s self-defeating procurement policy that has failed to support this Scottish industry.

Most of the new electric buses being bought by the likes of First Glasgow and McGill’s are partially funded by Scottish Government........

© Evening Times