MORE than 20 Warrington buses have been taken out of service after they were operating illegally without a valid MOT.

Replacement buses have been arranged while Warrington’s Own Buses ‘rectify’ the issue.

The buses were found to have expired MOTs.

A spokesperson for the company said: “Buses were temporarily exempted from MOT during the Covid pandemic and we are investigating if this has led to a clerical error with the extended test dates.

“We have responded immediately to this issue and would like to reassure customers that buses are maintained to the highest standards, with an average 100% MOT first time pass rate.

“Buses are also inspected every month and our maintenance system is independently audited.”

This follows the news that over 40 bus services were cancelled in the town before 9am this morning, Wednesday, due to ‘operational issues’.

Commuters described the bus service as ‘abysmal’ while others claimed elderly people were ‘sat in the freezing cold’ waiting for buses that hadn’t turned up.