Bus Vannin has spent just under £2m on new minibuses in the past five years.

And £5.64m has been paid out on its bus replacement programme in three years.

This year, Bus Vannin took delivery of the six new hybrid Citaro single deckers and the 10 StreetDeck double deckers.

The double deckers stood idle at Bank’s Circus weeks after they were delivered, pending inspection, fitting of equipment and driver training.

Bus Vannin now has a fleet of 43 minibuses, of which 12 are equipped to work for ConnectVillages and ConnectPorts services.

Four out of eight minibuses delivered this year are equipped for use for dial-a-ride but only three of the 12 are used daily for ConnectVillages.

Minibuses are also used for patient transfer and educational transport. Others are used by care homes, civil defence, police, probation and the fire service.

A total of £323,340 was spent on purchasing minibuses in 2015-16, £455,680 the following year, £349,650 in 2017-18, £345,528 in 2018-2019 and £473,797 in 2019-20 - making a total of £1,947,995.

A total of 31 buses have been purchased between 2018-19 and 2020-21, of three different types, at a total cost of £5.84m.

Isle of Man Transport said the new Wright double deckers will enter service this month. A spokesman said: ’Receiving 16 new buses in a month would cause problems later with the MOT programme and immediately with driver and engineering training.

’The six Mercedes hybrid buses required the fewest changes. As type training was relatively simple, they were put into service first.’