DNiosrttrhic At Nyre nwesws Pupils turn journeys into a ‘ nightmare’ One spat on passenger’s hair as sweets were thrown
Fed- up passengers say they have been hit and spat on by rowdy pupils on a bus.
Last month the Post reported how residents hit out at some children from Prestwick Academy who are behind antisocial behaviour on the No 2, a public bus service to North Ayr.
Residents say the pupils’ behaviour is getting worse.
One woman told how she was spat on by a girl and said it is only a matter of time before some takes matters into their own hand.
The issues were raised again at last Tuesday’s Newton and Heathfield Community Council.
One community councillor said: “It is horrendous. I was on the buses one day and someone hit me on the back of the head.
” They were throwing things from the back of the bus.”
Another community councillor added: “A girl sat next to me and turned around and spat on my hair.
“They get the hard wrapped sweeties and they throw them down the bus and they end up on the floor. Some elderly person is going to slip. It is an accident waiting to happen.”
Concerns were raised about overcrowding on the buses and who would be liable if there was an accident.
“What if an elderly person slips on the sweets and gets maimed or hurt.”
Police officers who attended the meeting said it was difficult to obtain CCTV footage from the buses to identify the culprits.
Last month, the community council wrote to Stagecoach about their concerns.
R e s p o n d i n g , A l i s t a i r McCluskey, Operations Director of Stagecoach said: “The driver is on his own and limited to what he can do but passengers should not be subjected to behaviour of this sort so we will step up the random checks that our inspectors do on our services over the next couple of weeks, specifically concentrating on service 2 and 6 at the end of the school day.
“However can I also suggest that this is an issue of antisocial behaviour that you also write to the police and school as all schools have a dedicated campus officer who will also identify and deal with the pupils concerned.”
Tory councillor Ian Davis ( below), a former Prestwick Academy pupil, said that antisocial took up the issue with school’s head teacher Gordon Bone and Stagecoach.
“The campus officer for Prestwick Academy will monitor at the bus stops and on the bus but Stagecoach gave the advice that if there is an incident to report it to them,” he added.
Douglas Hutchison, South Ayrshire Council’s Director of Educational Services, said: “Following a complaint earlier this year we’ve addressed all young people at assemblies, where they were reminded about the expected standards of behaviour, both inside and outside of school hours.
“When we’re made aware of issues with specific individuals, complaints are dealt with immediately, with parents involved at the earliest opportunity.”
A Stagecoach West Scotland spokesman said they were concerned to hear about antisocial behaviour by some passengers on their bus.
He added: “We have not been made aware of these particular incidents, however we have received correspondence from the local community council raising concern about the conduct of some school pupils on a number of our services in the Prestwick area.
“In response to these concerns our inspectors have carried our additional checks on these routes and we have not witnessed such incidents during these checks.
“We take all allegations of antisocial behaviour very seriously, as such we would ask that any concerned passenger contacts us directly with regard to any such incident as soon as they are able in order to allow us to check our on vehicle CCTV systems.
“We will pass any evidence of anti social behaviour to the police for them to investigate further.”