Classic bus tour is driven out of town after ‘vandal attack from pensioners’
WHEN Derek Gawn set up an open-top bus tour of the Devon coast in a classic double-decker, tourists flocked to take a trip through the rolling countryside and picturesque villages.
But even though it was a roaring success, with 20,000 passengers a year, he is axing the service amid claims that a handful of pensioners waged war on his firm after objecting to noise from his old bus.
The main flash-point was the bus park on the seafront in Seaton, south Devon, which is next to a block of retirement flats. There was also opposition in nearby Colyton.
Upset by the din from the 1977 bus, a few residents allegedly began a vendetta against Mr Gawn’s firm, Mendip Mule.
He even claimed that the wheel nuts on the bus were loosened overnight, and pensioners would routinely hurl abuse at drivers from their sea-view balconies.
Staff were photographed turning up for work, and the entrance to the depot was blocked by cars, according to Mr Gawn.
He claims someone even opened a fake Facebook account to give poor reviews to the £3.95 service, which ran for three years through the Devon villages of Beer, Seaton, Axmouth, Colyton and Rousdon, and then to Lyme Regis and Charmouth in Dorset.
Another opponent allegedly pretended to be a local councillor complaining about the noise from the buses.
Mr Gawn, 64, said he could no longer put
‘Continual whining of a few people’
up with the abuse, adding: ‘The whole thing has made me ill from the stress of repeatedly dealing with these people.
‘The final nails were not mechanical issues or the weather – it was the continual whining of a few people. Ninety-nine per cent of people support us – but I can no longer cope with the 1 per cent.
‘The tour has been withdrawn due to hostility from a small minority of local residents towards our staff.
‘Me and my staff have been subject to tirades from a few local residents in the Seaton and Colyton area.
‘Sadly a couple of residents of the flats have taken to shouting at the drivers for parking our buses in the bus park, as they don’t want them outside their flat.
‘There was a slight issue with the fact we run older vehicles which obviously pre-date emissions tests, and when they start up on a cold morning they can be a little bit smokey, but they’ve passed all their tests. All the engines were shut down once they were parked. It has been elderly people in all cases – the same type of people who buy a house next to a railway and then complain about trains. We no longer wish to subject our staff to such behaviour from a small minority of locals.
‘Recently we even had a bus tampered with at night. All the wheel nuts were loosened on one wheel, and the wheel nut indicators were all put back on to cover the damage. That could kill people.’
A spokesman for Kingsdale, the firm that manages the flats in Seaton, said residents had an issue with the noisy engines. He said: ‘The complaints being made by residents relate to coach services generally and not specifically the Mendip Mule.
‘It’s about drivers who leave their engines running while they’re not moving. This is a long-running thing and there have been complaints about that practice.’