(22 Jan 2018, 9:56 pm)mb134 wrote Sorry, my initial post was meant to be 7439. Believe it suffered major mechanical failure earlier this year, and was withdrawn as a result. I assumed 7444 withdrawn quite some time ago.

It was withdrawn because some drivers were refusing to drive it. The suspension was shot and it swayed badly at speed as well as the brakes (which had always been iffy on this bus) being very poor. No matter, Arriva certainly got their money's worth out of it, just like they are with the 15 year old ex London buses such as 7410, 7485 etc.