Pupils at a Cumbrian primary school are hot on the heels of vandals who wrecked a bus shelter poster they designed to promote the service.
The children at Kirkbride Primary School ran a successful campaign to save the Stagecoach 93/93A route, which links Kirkbride, Anthorn, Bowness-on-Solway and Burgh-by-Sands with Carlisle.
After the threatened service was reprieved, 21 children in years five and six in Oak class designed a leaflet, postcard and poster to promote it.
But within hours of posters going up last month, one was torn down from the bus shelter at Grove Cottages, Kirkbride.
Jack Salisbury, 10, said: “Someone came and ripped the plastic casing, chucked it on the floor and threw the poster in the bin.
“It made me sad because we’d spent 18 months on the campaign.”
The police have been informed and the pupils have written newspaper-style reports of the incident in the hope that it will jog someone’s memory to provide information to help the police identify those responsible.
Stagecoach has replaced the poster.
Juno Griffin, 10, said: “If I could speak to whoever did it, I’d say ‘Why?’ There isn’t any point in doing it. We made the poster so that more people know about the bus. The more people know about it, the more they will use it.”
Teacher Anna Howe added: “The children are desperate to find the culprits. The campaign to save the bus was important for our community and for this to happen is so disappointing. We just don’t know who would do such a thing. A lot of people have remarked on how good the poster is.”
The bus route, which runs five times a day, was saved after the pupils enlisted the help of two MPs who persuaded the former Allerdale and Carlisle local authorities to step in with a temporary subsidy.
Artist Abby Kilfedder, of ArtsCool, helped the children to create the artwork for the poster while pupil Niamh Wharton, 11, came up with the slogan ‘This bus isn’t just for journeys, it’s for adventures….’
Stagecoach paid for the design and printing of the campaign.
Postcards are available free on the bus while the leaflet – which lists things to see and do along the scenic route – is widely available. A digital version can be downloaded using a QR code on the poster and postcard.
Tom Waterhouse, managing director of Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire, previously visited the school to thank the children.
He said: “This campaign has shown how vital the bus service is to the local community. We hope we can keep working in partnership with Cumberland Council so that the service continues.”
