Coach companies in Essex and Northamptonshire say they won't survive without help from the Government

Coach companies across the region are warning that if the Government doesn't intervene soon, there might not be enough coaches to take children to school in September.

Earlier in the month we reported on the 'Honk for Hope' campaign which saw coach companies, including Lodge Coaches in Essex, take part in a pilgrimage to parliament in protest at the lack of support for travel companies.

• Read more: 'We've lost everything': Essex coach company joins London convoy to protest lack of support from the Government

Now, with the new academic year looming, the financial state of the industry is a growing source of concern.

At Tendring Travel in Clacton, not one out of the 25 coaches here have left the yard since lockdown on 23rd March. However, unlike bus companies and airlines the coach industry says it's been unsupported and forgotten during the past four months.

The company has secured a government bounce back loan of 50-thousand pounds, but they say it's a drop in the ocean to what they need. The company's already lost around one million pounds in revenue over what would have been its busiest period.

Despite providing holidays and excursions very few coach companies have been able to access the government grants available to the leisure and hospitality sector.

Roger Ball runs RB Travel in Kettering in Northamptonshire. He's been in the industry since he was 16 years old and says this is the worst he's ever known.

The Treasury says it's provided a 'generous and wide-ranging package of support for businesses' such as the furlough scheme, tax deferrals and bounce back loans. However, with 40-thousand jobs at stake nationally, the industry says it's not enough and taking on more debt to pay debt isn't going to be the answer.