We must remember that some of the services at Hexham are only contracted services, which Go North East may not be awarded with in future. Indeed; it's a possibility that Northumberland County Council may decide in the future that they cannot afford to offer the current level of service in the long-term, and terminate the contract after five years (which, to my memory, is the length for the contract for services 680 and 682)! I suppose it'd be difficult to justify spending a large amount of money to buy new buses, when there's uncertainty of the future for the services the bus would operate on?
The minibus PVR at Hexham is 7 vehicles (with one spare - presumably one of the AD122 branded examples which haven't been de-branded):
1. 682
2. 683
3. 74, 686, 687
4. 74, 686, 688
5. 112, 74, 686
6. 185, 681, X81
7. 141, 688
The seventh must be operated by a vehicle with seatbelts (and at the moment the only minibus with seatbelts at Hexham is 618), owing to a contractual requirement on the 141 scholars service. The 680 service is operated by a Scania L94/Wright Eclipse Solar. I cannot see either of these allocations changing, especially when Go North East went to the expense of refurbishing and retrofitting 618 with seatbelts, specifically for use on the aforementioned contract.
