Bus drivers in fines row; TRAVEL: Fury over parking tickets issued at stops.

Byline: Patrice John

MIDLAND bus drivers are being hit with parking tickets for pulling over at bus stops.

Officials from travel companies National Express and Diamond Bus confirmed they were contesting tickets issued by Walsall Council to drivers parked up at designated stops.

The authority said it was acting to prevent so-called "extended parking", when buses wait at stops around Walsall until bays become available inside the town's station.

A National Express spokeswoman said: "Our buses regularly wait at designated bus stops around Walsall bus station until a bay becomes available inside.

"This has been standard practice for 50 years and ensures the flow of buses within the station is safe and punctual.

"However, over recent weeks we have received several parking tickets from Walsall Council while our buses have been parked at designated bus stops.

"We are contesting each ticket and have contacted the council to try and find a solution."

Diamond Bus drivers claimed to have suffered the same treatment, including one instance when a vehicle was allegedly ticketed after breaking down.

Operations manager Stephen Bryce said they too were contesting the tickets as they believed they were unfair.

"We're here to provide a service to the public," he said. "Enforcement officers should be deployed to target car drivers who regularly park on double yellow lines and use bus lines illegally which in turn delay our services. On one occasion an engineer's vehicle was parked at the back of the bus when an enforcement officer sneaked round to the front and issued a parking ticket - it's complete madness.

"We never had any problems before so I don't know what's changed in their policy to prompt this."

Walsall Council's Paul Leighton claimed extended parking was not allowed in bus stops and enforcement officers would take action.

"Bus stops are provided to drop off or pick up passengers and do not allow for extended parking as to allow this would have a direct impact on other bus services needing to use the same bus stop," he said.

"Lay over stops specifically for this purpose have to be agreed by the regulator and none of the locations in question are lay over stops."

CAPTION(S):

Stunned: Operations manager from the Diamond Bus Company Stephen Bryce is in dispute with the council.