Ossett: Yorkshire town will no longer be served by buses after 6pm due to 'anti-social behaviour being through the roof'

UPDATE TUESDAY 5.30PM: Arriva has now agreed to reinstate the services after West Yorkshire Combined Authority offered to provide evening security. West Yorkshire Police also intends to step up officer patrols in the area.

A spokesperson for Arriva Yorkshire said: “Arriva Yorkshire is now serving Ossett bus station, after having to stop going there last night (August 7) due to multiple incidents of anti-social behaviour. The bus operator has been working with West Yorkshire Combined Authority and we’re grateful for their assistance by providing security each evening.

“The safety of our passengers and drivers is of paramount importance. We should not have to say that behaving in an anti-social and dangerous way around buses is unacceptable and mindless, but sadly we do. This type of behaviour is something we as a bus operator utterly condemn.”

A West Yorkshire Combined Authority spokesperson said: “We are working with partners, including the police and bus operators, to ensure the region’s bus stations are safe and accessible for passengers. Following a recent increase in antisocial behaviour, we have secured extra police and security cover at Ossett Bus Station to ensure passenger safety.

“The station will remain open, and operators have now confirmed that services to the station will resume as normal.”

The operator made the announcement yesterday (August 7), saying the safety of staff and passengers is “paramount”.

The decision comes a week after police admitted that anti-social behaviour in Ossett is “going through the roof”.

Arriva issued a service disruption alert for the 126 Dewsbury to Wakefield service, saying it “will not serve Ossett bus station every evening after 6pm until August 13 due to multiple incidents of anti-social behaviour”.

The alert adds: “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and the safety of our team and passengers is paramount.

“We will continue to work with local authorities and our travel safe partners to resolve this.”

Tony Homewood, independent councillor for Ossett, said: “It has really come to something when the local bus operator dare not send its own buses into its own bus station.

“The police, in the meantime, are not able to tackle the problem because it happens when the few police officers we have in Ossett are on their day off.

“The Mayor of West Yorkshire (Tracy Brabin) is responsible for public transport and the police and she seems to be failing at every opportunity.”

Residents were told last week that Ossett now has just four officers dedicated to neighbourhood policing.

PCSO Richard Firth spoke on behalf of West Yorkshire Police at Ossett’s monthly Police and Communities Together (PACT) meeting.

The officer said people had complained that the bus station has become a “no-go zone”.

He said: “In the last six weeks we have had 20 calls about nuisance behaviour at the bus station.

“We have visited some kids. We have given them contracts from the council not to go in the bus station.

“We have done various things behind the scenes but nothing seems to be working at the moment.

“The only thing that we have noticed is that on the evenings when we are rostered to work we don’t get any calls.

“On the evenings when we are on rest days it can be bedlam. We got loads of calls.”

The meeting heard the sergeant in charge of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority-funded safer travel officers had received more complaints about anti-social behaviour at Ossett and Cleckheaton bus stations than anywhere else in the region.

PCSO Firth said the high number of complaints is due both stations being unmanned.

Arriva, WYCA, West Yorkshire Police and Wakefield Council have been contacted for comment.