A BUS service put on for students at a college in York may be cancelled after reports of damage and inappropriate behaviour.

York College sent an email on Tuesday (October 8) to students and parents which said the 'Route 9 Selby' bus, operated by York Pullman, saw ‘seatbelts on the top deck tied together extremely tightly’ and it had received ‘continued reports of people throwing things around the bus and at other students’.

An engineer was called out to deal with the seatbelts, the email said.

The bus service operates from Selby to the college and stops in rural areas of North Yorkshire including Thorpe Willoughby, Hambleton, Monk Fryston, Scathingwell and Towton.

A copy of the email attributed to the college’s Student Experience Officer (Transport) was posted onto a Facebook group for Selby residents where concerns were raised that students may not be able to go to the college if the only service accessing those areas was pulled.

'In this isolated incident, we included communication to our students’ parents to ensure that they were aware of the situation'

A York College and University spokesperson said: “As a college, we have high standards and high expectations of our students and apprentices.

“On the very rare occasions when their behaviour falls short of our high expectations, we will seek to challenge this to ensure they are aware of the impact this has on other people and themselves.

“As a college, we spend £1.44 million a year on providing buses as we recognise how important the bus routes we provide are for our students and apprentices to plug the gaps left by service buses across some of the more rural parts of our area.

“This amounts to a provision of 16 different bus routes across Yorkshire, stopping at 136 different pick-up points.

“In this isolated incident, we included communication to our students’ parents to ensure that they were aware of the situation.

“We have a very strong working relationship with York Pullman and will continue to work with them to ensure that the buses we use are safe for all travelling students and apprentices.”

The college bus services include 15 routes for students wishing to commute to and from the institution in Sim Balk Lane with a boundary that takes in Scarborough, Nafferton, Snaith, Tockwith and Ampleforth.

York Pullman, based in Rufforth, lists 23 academic institutions in North Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire where it operates school services and there are ten bespoke routes listed for York College students.