Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

[Olympian2100]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
I was chatting with a near neighbour who works at Southport Depot and he was telling me a few of the plans for the Sefton Franchise.
Southport are to take on the Maghull Circulars, 31/31A, 32/32A and 33. Plus the 36, which runs from Aintree Hospital to Maghull.
The intention is to reinstate all the Southport Local services that Arriva have withdrawn over the years to give a more comprehensive network there.
The daftest plan is to run the 300 Southport to Liverpool 24 hours a day!! As the route hardly picks up anyone between Lydiate and the edge of Southport most of the time during the day, this is clearly a waste of money.
Mind you, as these are only plans, I'm sure they will be amended between now and the Franchise start date.

He did say the staff at Southport should know who the successful bidder is sometime next month. He also said that no one Company can operate more than 30% of the bus services on Merseyside, so would that preclude Stagecoach and Go Ahead from winning any more Franchises?