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Northern housing estate so bad bus drivers were forced to stop going there
The services were fully suspended over the weekend following a spate of antisocial behaviour
A northern housing estate has become so plagued with anti-social behaviour that bus drivers were told to avoid stopping there.
Two bus routes through the Swarcliffe Estate in Leeds were cancelled on Saturday, March 5th, after teenagers reportedly targeted the vehicles and its passengers with stones and rocks.
In a social media statement, First West Yorkshire announced that the 40 and 56 services would be avoiding the estate in both directions for the rest of the day, citing ‘attempted vandalism’.
The tweet thread read: “SERVICE UPDATE – 40/56. Due to attempted vandalism, we are diverting away from the Swarcliffe Estate in both directions.
“So sorry for any issues this may cause on your journey.
“This will be in place until the end of service this evening. This is for the safety of both our drivers and passengers. I am sorry for the disruption caused.”
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In a post on Facebook, Councillor Jessica Lennox, of Cross Gates and Whinmoor ward, addressed the vandalism, confirming that the 40 and 56 buses would be diverting around the area ‘as a result of some serious vandalism that took place earlier’.
The services were resumed the following day on Sunday March 6th.
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Residents have previously spoken about how they ‘live in fear’ on the estate, saying intimidating anti-social behaviour is becoming worse.
One local teenager told Leeds Live of the youths who vandalised the buses: “They throw stones and break the buses whenever they come down here. I wasn’t surprised.
“Just the other day I saw three buses stopped at the bottom of the estate because they all had glass smashed everywhere. It had gone over a nearby mum and her pram.
“If you see a big group of people anywhere around here you turn around and go the other way.”
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Her grandmother added: “Stones are always thrown at buses around here as there’s nothing for the kids to do… It’s really bad where big groups gather around the Co-Op.
“My grandson lives around the corner and he’s been attacked twice. We don’t really go out at night, and would use a taxi if we did. It’s not nice for the drivers or the passengers.”
Another resident, Keith Pettman, told the outlet that the estate was suffering major issues with antisocial behaviour, saying: “There’s some youths on the estate that are a little rowdy.
“They mess about with bikes and things like all bored teenagers do but I know they get in the way of buses and people.
“There’s definitely vandals around that will smash a few things up every so often. The field also gets ripped up and recently a load of dustbins got set on fire.”