Starry Starry Night!

A terrific day launching our new buses was completed with Bluestar’s annual Starry Starry Night evening, where we celebrated the numerous achievements of our team throughout the past year. This was held at the prestigious venue of St Mary’s Stadium, home of Southampton Football Club.

Over 150 guests were in attendance including members of our driving, engineering, supervisory and administration teams, as well as a number of friends of the company, including our local authority partners, neighbouring bus operators and other supporters of our business.

Firstly, we recognised the achievements of those members of staff who clocked up 100% full attendance across up to three consecutive years.

bluestar winners
Operations Manager Alex Hornby (left) and Managing Director Alex Carter (right) are seen with the 100% Attendance winners for 2008 – Mark Davie, Barry Taak, Dennis Taylor, Derek Pritchard, John Wright, Dave Mason, Mike Jones, Colin Churcher, Linda Wellman, Chris Edwards, Paul Hawkins, Chrys Spurrier.
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100% Attendance winners in both 2007 and 2008 – James Jacobs, Steve Speight, Jon Robertson, Paula Bird, Phil Glenn, Mel Ruffles

100% attendance in any job is certainly worthwhile of huge congratulations and we are proud of those who managed to achieve this across 3 consecutive years…

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100% Attendance Winners for 3 years full attendance - Jim Bubb, Rio Kumar, Barry Stuart, Frank Davison

We then presented awards to our Goldstars – this is a special award made to those for excellent performance in their job with us in the year for various reasons.

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Goldstar winners drivers Rio Kumar, Dave Langler and Jane Jones, cleaner Sue Cook, and drivers Chris Edwards and Mel Ruffles

Those who have achieved more than 15 years service in Bluestar and its predecessors were also recognised. These are the people who have kept the wheels turning over many years and help lay the foundations of the business we know today.

bluestar winners
Long Service Award winners James Jacobs, Mike Channel, Pete Edwards, Colin Smith, Frank Binge, Chrys Spurrier, Mel Ruffles, Alex Attridge, Frank Davison, Alan Diaper Not pictured – Robin Pavey, Colin Churcher, Mark Davie, Paul Hawkins

Phil Glenn also received a special Highly Commended award on behalf of the UK Bus Awards for customer service. Phil was our big success story at 2008’s Bus Driver Of The Year competition – coming 7th overall and 1st amongst Go-Ahead Group companies. He was entered for the customer service category at the UK Bus Awards and came away with a “Highly Commended” award. It was only right that all of his achievements were again recognised at our special evening.

Phillip Glenn
Philip Glenn

The final award of the evening – and the biggest of the night - was the Star Driver of the Year award, where one driver from our team of 180 was singled out for their outstanding performance in their job, including their timekeeping, attendance and customer care skills. Linda Wellman, seen here receiving a certificate, commemorative Bluestar model bus and 100 worth of John Lewis vouchers was the worthy winner as voted for by our entire management and supervisory team.

Congratulations to Linda and all winners – we’re lucky to have you!

Linda Wellman
Linda Wellman receiving her Star Driver of the Year award from Alex Carter and Alex Hornby