The five proposals to run a public transport system were discussed by a special evaluation group earlier this week. The group comprises Government personnel and Leeanne Henry, Acting Managing Director from the St Helena Development Agency. This was the group’s second meeting.

In early August, SHG invited tenders to operate a public transport system and now that proposals have been received, a decision has to be taken as to which party or parties should be awarded the contract.

The five interested parties have all submitted their business plans which include their proposed routes and the amount of subsidy they would require from SHG to operate the service.

When assessing the proposals, the evaluation group is focusing on four main areas; financial, which includes the subsidy required and the proposed fares; business, which includes management arrangements and marketing ideas; health and safety, and routes and times.

One group member said: "we are carefully considering all of the submissions and steady progress is being made in evaluating the proposals submitted by the interested parties."

It is still planned to have the public transport system up and running this month so that the people of the Island can start to benefit from it.

It will be necessary for the evaluation group to have a few more meetings before making recommendations to the Tender Board.