Meeting held with school following more than £11,000 worth of damage

A meeting was held this morning at Washwood Heath Technology College attended by West Midland Police and Travel West Midlands (under the Operation Safer Travel Partnership). The meeting was held in a bid to put an end to a catalogue of incidents where missiles were thrown through windows - damaging Travel West Midlands buses.The worst incident for some time took place last week when 12 windows, on 5 buses, were smashed by pupils at Washwood Heath Technology College whilst they travelled along Burney Lane.Corporate Affairs Director, Phil Bateman said: "We had a very constructive meeting with the school this morning and we have mapped out a number of initiatives through Operation Safer Travel that we will be taking which we hope will reduce the incidents that have been occurring on our bus services. The school had identified four students who may have been involved in incidents last week. These names have been passed to West Midlands Police for further investigation. We recognise the difficult problems that schools like Washwood Heath have when students leave the school site. We’re appealing for help in the community, not only to lessen the danger to passengers and staff but also, to help us deter and detect these grotesque incidents that have been happening of late."In the past two months £11,340 worth of damage has been caused but luckily no-one has been seriously injured through the incidents.

Published 10th March 2004