Designlines to be Scrapped?

The buses are now stacked in a corner of a scrapyard

The ten Designline electric buses that were controversially taken out of service after just five years use are now stacked on top of each other in a north east scrapyard. In June 2012 we reported here that they had been moved to a storage yard just north of Sandy Lane in Newcastle.
They were owned jointly by Nexus, the Tyne and Wear PTE and Gateshead Council and were taken out of service when only five years old, when the QuayLink contract was lost by Stagecoach to Go North East. Stagecoach were persuaded to try them on other routes in the Newcastle area but they were found to be just as unreliable as they had been when operated on the Quaylink services.
In response to our posting in June 2012 about them being moved in to storage Huw Lewis of Nexus told us  "We can confirm we have sold these vehicles to a private company, which we understand is now preparing them for a new role"
So much for the new role - maybe they will become drink cans or washing machines?

 June 2012 when the ten buses had just been moved to the storage compound

Focus Comment
Nexus is the organisation that claims it can make a better job of running the buses in Tyne & Wear via a Quality Contract. It is fairly easy to do anything if you have an unlimited supply of public money, as in this case concerning the Designlines, which were rumoured to have cost £250,000 per vehicle and only lasted in service for around five years.