No can-do attitude angers bus passenger

A PENSIONER was left ten miles from home after being refused a bus ride because he was carrying a can of paint.

Brian Wakley said he was stopped from taking the Bournemouth to Poole bus as the non-toxic green fence paint breached regulations.

The retired office worker was told to leave the bus by the driver because the 3.75 tin was a "banned substance", he said.

Rather than pay more than 20 for a taxi after the episode, Wakley called a friend to take him home to Sandhurst, near Wareham. He then called the company and it confirmed its policy.

Wakley said: "It was a five-litre sealed plastic pot. I know it was innocuous, because I took the liberty of contacting the manufacturer.

"The driver said to me: 'I'm sorry, you can't come aboard because you are carrying a banned substance'. "I said: 'It's a can of paint'. He said it was against regulations."

He added: "You see yobs on buses eff-ing and blinding and yet here I am, a pensioner, carrying some paint. It makes me feel like my human rights have been violated."

The company's head of operations, Ed Wills, said in a statement that the company would never willingly turn away a passenger, but it had to abide by conditions of carriage rules.

The statement continued: "I recognise that the issue of carrying paint on buses is something some people may think is a minor issue but, unfortunately, over the years we have experienced instances of paint being accidentally dropped by passengers and spilling over the floor, onto seats and splashing other passengers."