A FORMER councillor is facing more complaints over his coach company.

Richard Powell – who apologised last year for forwarding on racist text messages – runs a firm called Southern Coaches.

The Daily Echo reported complaints about his firm in January and more angry customers have come forward since then.

Alison Wilkinson, an assistant head for Whitefield Infant School in Lancashire, said they booked a coach for a staff trip to London.

It didn’t turn up, and she estimated the school made 25 calls trying to get their money back, despite assurances the cheque was “in the post.”

Robert Hurran from Kent booked a 102-seat coach to transfer guests to his daughter’s wedding in Swanage but only a 33- seater turned up.

He said he was initially offered £100 of the £500 back as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

Vinod Chakrapani, leader of Poole Hindi community, says he paid £485 for a coach to London but the group were left stranded in the rain.

David Jessop, 53, a commercial manager, said a coach from Highcliffe to Gatwick didn’t turn up and despite repeated pledges of a £500 refund, the money had not materialised.

The Echo spoke to Mr Powell and he said several of those customers had been refunded.

He said Southern Coaches does not have its own fleet but is only a coach brokerage. He said complaints should be made to the contracted coach operator.

The Echo pointed out that his website has a section entitled “Fleet” with pictures of coaches of different sizes.

He said the images represent “what we offer”, adding: “It does state on our website that we are a broker.”

Mr Powell, from Westbourne, did not stand for re-election to Bournemouth’s Westbourne and Westcliff ward in last week’s council election.

Southern Coaches said in a statement: “We take complaints seriously.

“We have negotiated on behalf of our clients with the coach operators, for an explanation and to pursue compensation in addition to a full refund.

“For data protection reasons Southern Coaches cannot comment on particular details of complaints.

“Within the last six months we have successfully completed in excess of 2,000 transfers and with only eight complaints, we feel we are still professionally brokering coach hire.”