Last Friday marked the end of an era when the sale of Thamesdown Transport became public. The bus company was owned by the council for many years and was sold last week to Go South Coast, part of the Go Ahead Group, which is a FTSE 250 listed company.

The rumours of the sale were first mentioned in the Advertiser a few weeks ago and our communications team was kept extremely busy in the run-up to the sale with repeated questions by the local media asking if the story was indeed true.

The wall of silence and echoes of “no comment” were not attempts to be unhelpful to journalists, far from it. They were born out of necessity.

The commercially sensitive nature of the sale meant we had to keep all details of the deal confidential. Any confirmation of a deal being imminent could have led to aggressive marketing and pricing activities by competitors and potential bidders with the aim of reducing the value of Thamesdown Transport.

It was a situation we could not allow to happen. Not just for local taxpayers, but for staff, whose jobs are of paramount importance to us.

Although details of the sale were kept private, what would not have come as a surprise to most people is the reasons why we took the action we did. Thamesdown had been losing significant sums of money over the previous five years and this was despite continued financial support from the council.

This clearly could not carry on, especially given the financial challenges facing the council.

Although I am sorry we are no longer one of the few towns to still have a municipally-owned bus company, I am delighted we completed the sale to such an established bus operator who is far better placed to invest in the service and enhance it. I know the staff who will transfer over to Go South Coast are in safe hands.

I met with Go South Coast’s managing director Andrew Wickham on Monday and I was pleased to hear that the new company has no plans to change the Thamesdown brand and that it is clearly business as usual as far as they are concerned.

I know Go South Coast are keen to meet with bus user groups and passengers to share their future plans and to listen to any concerns or questions from those that use the wide range of bus services.

I am sure the next chapter in Thamesdown’s history will prove to be a very successful journey.