POLICE and transport bosses are boarding school buses in Burnley to try and stamp out the problem of anti-social behaviour by pupils.

Bus chiefs say routes to and from certain schools in the town are being plagued by youngsters making life a misery for drivers and passengers.

They have now teamed up with the police and county council to carry out randon checks on services to make sure youngsters are behaving themselves.

The worst problems have been reported on buses in the Padiham Road area, serving Habergham, Ivy Bank and Gawthorpe high schools.

School heads today welcomed the move and said it was part of a programme aimed at ensuring children behave while travelling on public transport while ensuring fares were paid.

The first of the checks was carried out earlier this month and no problems were uncovered, but the scheme will continue.

Lancashire County Council's Safer Travel Unit teamed up with local police officers and transport inspectors to respond to worries from local bus operator, Burnley and Pendle Travel, who had reported instances of disruption and also non-payment of fares.

Operations manager at Burnley and Pendle Travel, James Dunbar, said: "The scheme is about trying to deal with anti-social behaviour from some of the children travelling to and from schools.

"We have had various problems with bad behaviour which has included distracting the bus drivers, making them lose their concentration and also making journeys much less pleasant for genuine travellers.

"We have been working closely with police, the county council and the schools to try and eradicate the problems."

Rick Wilson, Safer Travel Unit manager, said: "There were no problems on the day and that is great news. The work of the Safer Travel Unit is all about helping people to feel safe and happy when they are on public transport - and that includes school pupils too.

"We want to publicise the fact that these checks are happening as we are actually not trying to catch people out. This is as much about raising awareness as finding people who haven't bought the right tickets or passes.

"Although no problems were found on the three buses the team visited we plan to keep running the checks in the Burnley area for the time being."

Donald Waine, acting headteacher at Habergham in Byron Streets, said: "We welcome the work being done by the Safer Travel Unit. We have been working alongside them as have other schools.

"They come into schools to assist with work in citizenship lessons. It's about making sure boys and girls are educated and making sure trouble doesn't happen in the first place."