Four senior figures from Spalding and Stamford bus operator made finalists at national awards

The news comes just weeks after it was announced that Stagecoach East itself had been made a Finalist in the “Large Operator of the Year” category.

Now, Charlton Thornhill, Head of Commercial, has been shortlisted in the Manager of the Year, Large Operator category, and Peter Collins, Engineering Manager at has been shortlisted for Engineer of the Year.

Meanwhile, Hayden Mustafa, now Operations Manager has been acknowledged in the Rising Star category, and Martin Marsh, Operations Manager is a Finalist for Manager of the Year, Small/Medium Operator.

The shortlists were decided by a panel of seven judges, including Joan Aitken OBE, former Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, Mark Fowles OBE, former Managing Director of Nottingham City Transport, and Norman Thomas, former Product Engineering Manager for Volvo Bus.

Darren Roe, Managing Director of Stagecoach East, said: “This is wonderful news for the people involved and also for their teams. I am so proud of them all – of everything that they have already achieved at East, and everything that they will achieve in the industry.

“Getting to this level has taken a huge amount of dedication to consistently work for the benefit of our local customers and to improve what we do. I now just wish them every success at the next stage of judging. They continue to do our local communities and our region proud!”