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.
RE: Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - January 2016