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4760 has not been used this month and the MOT expires on the 13th, wonder if that's the end for it

It also appears to have broken down the last time it was used so almost certainly the end as there's no point in repairing it for less than a week of use.

I think it's also important to remember that university adverts are slightly different to most localised adverts in that it is far from unusual for universities to purposely place adverts on buses in areas other than which they are based due to the fact most students come from outside the immediate area. I believe at least Sheffield Hallam and Northampton universities currently have adverts on buses in Leicester so to the average person an advert for a university does not stand out in the same way that other localised adverts for the wrong area would.

Looks like 4201 has gone to Arriva Beds and Bucks

Which is completely illogical whilst 4760 and 4761 which should have been withdrawn months ago continue to be required and saloons continue to cover decker diagrams on an almost daily basis due to an ongoing shortage of deckers.
Also makes absolutely no sense to have an avoidable micro fleet of one within the depot so really 4202 should be swapped with an enviro at Derby.

Thought we were getting away from all this silliness running multiple buses over the same route from different companies, thought bus partnerships were the way forward like the one in Leicester

Bus partnerships are only any good if they apply to the whole of the area and not just within an arbitrarily drawn part of an area which hasn't been updated in several decades and which does not account for a large chunk of the extended urban area in which many journeys originate (as in Leicester where some passengers on the affected routes now have to buy two tickets to cover their journeys where the connecting leg is on the operator that has withdrawn its service given there is no combined ticketing outside of the outdated, illogical and unfair boundary which is a substantially different distance from the city centre depending on which direction you are heading).

Do you know what happened to cause the fire to start then?

An investigation does imply blame or fault.
The relatively unusual circumstances prior to the fire in which the vehicle had been unexpectedly withdrawn from service but allowed to return to the depot under its own steam simply means that there are a few more questions to be answered than the freak event in service fires that (whilst rare) are the more regular occurrence.
If it was found that the fire was unrelated to the reason for the vehicle being removed from service the public would be reassured that their safety is being taken seriously and if any other outcome was found the necessary steps could be put in place to avoid a reoccurrence.

Looks like it had been on the TZ2 to Twycross Zoo, possibly on the way back to Barwell depot

The vehicle from the TZ2 typically goes straight into Leicester in order to operate the TZ1 without going anywhere near the depot. With this in mind it would suggest that there was already a known fault with the vehicle but that it was incorrectly decided that it would be safe to drive the vehicle out of service back to the depot.
With this in mind I would assume there will be a full external investigation from the transport commissioner as to whether Arriva management have recklessly put a member of staff and other road users at risk of serious injury in order to save a few quid on a tow truck and that whether the current policies and procedures are adequate at minimising the risks to the public.

Yes, that's why I was a bit surprised at the suggestion that Stagecoach was building up for WM franchises. I don't know of a date for franchises to be announced/released - what are they?
Surely, Stagecoach just order a large quantity of new buses for the whole of the UK and then later allocate as necessary ?

I suspect there's a bit more to it than just plucking a number out of thin air and waiting until they arrive before deciding where to allocate them but yes I can't imagine the allocations are 100% fixed at this stage (although for the electrics they may well be more fixed to depots than historically due to the high proportion of buses receiving funding from various schemes that dictate where they'll operate).

While not arguing that what happened was customer-friendly, the decision was presumably made for a good reason. Are we sure there was no problem with the vehicle?

By the time it arrived at Fosse Park, the 1740 Leicester - Narborough was running 17 minutes late, which could potentially have meant the driver might be close to exceeding his hours if he continued to Narborough then back to depot, especially if there were any further delays on his empty trip. The 1800 Leicester - Narborough was less than 5 minutes behind the 1740 at Fosse Park so, apart from having to change buses, the impact on passengers would have been minor.

If 17 minutes is enough of a delay to put a driver at risk of exceeding their hours that's extremely poor planning and doesn't allow sufficient contingency for anything but the most minor of unexpected occurrences. Whilst everyone would prefer a consistently on time service the reality is that delays of at least 30 minutes should be accommodated for when planning driver rotas as it is far from uncommon for things to happen that cause this level of delay.

The driver shortage is over so it's time to get rid of boards that require buses running as little as 15 minutes late from terminating early on the last run of the day in order to get back to the depot within driver hours. Or at least I assume it's poor diagramming pushing hours to the limit rather than a lazy driver that caused the 17:40 50 to Narborough to terminate at Fosse Park due to the driver needing to get back to the depot on time.

And in completely expected news 8000 (and 2 other electrics have done peak time boards on the 84) has spent the day on the 31 whilst 2 diesel e400MMCs were on the 50. If the diagrammer cannot tell the difference between blue and green buses something is going drastically wrong, 

8002 has been at St Margaret's this morning receiving attention and looking at bustimes.org it appears that 4535 has deputised for it to avoid a missed service.

It's actually 4534 that's on the 50/51. I assume the machine for 4535 tracking on the 127 is the actual 4535. Not sure what '4534' on the 158 actually is.

And the use of electroliners on the 31 whilst diesels operate on the 50 has started to spread away from Sundays. Absolutely no excuse on a Saturday given there is neither peak only boards and buses remain on the same services all day.

Correct.
Although it's expected a further order for 127 & 5/5A will be made imminently following the next round of funding (which will also see pretty much all Loughborough going electric, except for sky, midland Diamond & the few Centrebus routes).
It's also thought the 148/158 corridor could be going electric too (thanks to Warwick receiving a share of the fund.. although not sure if yet officially confirmed or just early speculation).

The Stagecoach 148 should be going electric within the next few months, as far as I know Arriva had no part in that bid and there are no plans for the 158 to follow.
On the topic of the 4401/4402 transfers to Leicester I would have thought it would have made far more sense for these to have gone to Merseyside with Leicester instead retaining 4531/4532 to give both areas a more uniform fleet.

Leicester seems to have overall lost buses in the past few years. Looking at Bustimes on the Wayback Machine, there were 174 buses at Arriva in Leicestershire in March 2023; today there are only 165. I think this is mainly due to the DB250s being progressively withdrawn without adequate replacements being brought in.

Based on the current plans it is looking like the longer term idea is for Leicester to have 162/163 buses (I assume 162 as I don't see one solitary Olympus staying despite the rumours so far talking about 12 leaving) including 1008 which isn't used in public service and 4 coaches for the X6. Given Leicester has an approximate PVR of 150 at a quick count and a lot of the fleet will still be on the verge of life expired this seems like a disaster waiting to happen as it gives approximately a 7.5% maximum rate of unavailability before services have to be cancelled which gives very little room for any issues.

Do we know which E400s these will be? If it's 2 of the YY14s then it doesn't seem like too bad of a swap, but my instinct is telling me it will be the SN58 "spares" in the max livery.

I presume that once all the electroliners are in service, all that will be left will be the 2 B9TL Geminis and all the Enviro400s, with all the DB250s getting withdrawn and the Olympuses transferring like you said. If my calculations are correct this will mean thurmaston will have 77 deckers - will that be enough for a day's service?

Probably not but insufficient deckers has been an ongoing problem for many years at this point. The bigger question is that with the 50/51 and 47/48 being the more regular routes to substitute with smaller buses whether the electroliners end up off route regularly or whether the impact of smaller vehicles is moved onto other routes.