FIRST Western National has been taken off the Okehampton town and Okehampton-North Tawton bus services.
From January 2 the services will be run by Carmel Coaches of Northlew. Devon County Council put the contract up for tender a few weeks ago, instead of at its scheduled end during 2001, because it said FWN was operating unsatisfactorily.
The head of the county council's public transport group, John Richardson-Dawes, said: 'Complaints were received of unpunctuality, deviation from the route and wrong destination signs.'
Carmel will run the services for the next five years, subject to reviews of its performance, said Mr Richardson-Dawes.
The company runs weekly services for the county council into Okehampton and Bideford from the surrounding villages and a commercial school bus service to Exeter from the Okehampton and Northlew areas.
FWN was recently taken off the Peter Tavy route after criticisms of its performance. It was the first time such drastic action had been taken by the county for a number of years.
It said the company had failed to operate effectively as specified in the contract. FWN had held the contract for several years. That route has been given temporarily to C J Down, of Mary Tavy, and the job will be put out to tender for a long-term contract.
There have also been complaints about FWN's service between Tavistock and Okehampton. West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett is taking this up with the Department of Transport and the county council.
He has written to Transport Minister Lord Macdonald and county environment director Ed Chorlton to ask whether pressure is being put on bus companies to fulfil their public service obligations.
In response to the earlier criticisms of its other services, FWN said that it had suffered a temporary shortage of drivers and that punctuality was sometimes affected by the volume of traffic at peak hours.